Cabinet agreed the draft plan unanimously, and comments are open until 5pm on 21 December. It allocates 14,700 homes to 2045, 4,900 of them at Bournes Green.
Southend’s full draft Local Plan has been published, and it keeps the site councillors wanted to drop. The plan allocates at least 4,900 homes on Green Belt land at Bournes Green, on the city’s northern edge next to Rochford District.
Updated 7 November: Cabinet agreed on 5 November, unanimously, to publish the plan, and the consultation opened on 6 November. It runs until 5pm on Monday 21 December. Comment online at localplan.southend.gov.uk, or ask planningpolicy@southend.gov.uk for a response form. Printed copies are at every Southend library and the Civic Centre reception (Southend-on-Sea City Council, how to give your views). The council says Full Council will review the final plan in early 2027.
The plan, which runs to more than 350 pages, went to an extraordinary Cabinet meeting on Thursday 5 November, which agreed to publish it for formal consultation the next day. The papers set the consultation to run from 6 November to 21 December 2026 (Cabinet report, 5 November 2026).
The council has little choice. On 23 October the housing minister, Matthew Pennycook, directed it to start the consultation by 6 November. We reported that direction in Southend Local Plan: Minister Orders Consultation by 6 Nov. His letter named site BG1 as the one the council’s leader had wanted removed. The draft now confirms what BG1 is: the “Bournes Green New Neighbourhood”.
How many homes, and where
The plan provides for 14,700 new homes between 2025 and 2045. The government’s standard method puts Southend’s need at 28,100 over the same period. The report to Cabinet says that figure “cannot be sustainably met within the city” because of land, environmental and infrastructure limits.
The plan’s housing policy, SP5, splits the 14,700 like this:
| Area | New homes |
|---|---|
| Bournes Green, land north of Southend | 4,900 |
| Southend Central Area (city centre and central seafront) | 3,600 |
| Intensification across the city (windfall) | 3,000 |
| Other neighbourhoods of Southend | 1,850 |
| Fossetts Farm | 1,350 |
| Total | 14,700 |
Building would start slowly and speed up. The plan sets a stepped target:
- 2025 to 2030: 365 homes a year
- 2030 to 2035: 655 homes a year
- 2035 to 2045: 960 homes a year
Of the 14,700, about 3,500 already have planning permission. New site allocations would supply 7,700, and “broad locations” such as underused employment land another 500. The rest is the 3,000 expected from windfall sites (draft Local Plan, Appendix 1).
What BG1 at Bournes Green would include
Policy DM2b allocates the Bournes Green site, reference BG001, for:
- at least 4,900 homes, 45% of them affordable, with at least 150 self-build plots and housing for older people
- at least 12,500 sq m of employment space, plus shops and community buildings in local centres
- two two-form-entry primary schools and a secondary school, or one primary and one all-through school
- a purpose-built primary care health centre
- a country park, sports pitches, and new protected green space on land west of Star Lane
- road and transport improvements set out in the council’s Infrastructure Delivery Plan
The golf course at Garon Park stays in the Green Belt. Developers would have to pay for a “Golf Impact Assessment” and fund improvements to golf facilities.
The plan says “exceptional circumstances” justify moving the Green Belt boundary. Its main reason is that the council’s land assessments “failed to find an adequate supply of housing land” outside the Green Belt. A second Green Belt site, HEA264 at Fossetts Farm, is allocated for 966 homes. A footnote says some of the Bournes Green homes are expected after 2045.
The report says projects and applications for these sites “are already active in the planning system”.
What happens next
- Thursday 5 November: Cabinet agreed unanimously to publish the plan.
- 6 November to 5pm on 21 December: the Regulation 19 consultation. At this stage comments must be about whether the plan is “sound” and legally compliant, not simply whether you like it.
- Full Council then considers the comments and agrees the plan for submission.
- By 31 March 2027: submission to the Secretary of State, as the minister directed. A planning inspector then holds a public examination.
The council’s revised timetable says adoption could follow 6 to 12 months after submission.
The report is blunt about the alternative. If the council does not comply, the government “may” take over the plan, and the costs “would likely be charged back to the Council”. It warns that failing to meet the deadlines would mean “the Council acting unlawfully”.
The council set aside £1.466 million for the plan in 2018 and has had £334,547 from the government towards it, the report says.
What it means for you
- If you live near Bournes Green, Thorpe Bay or North Shoebury, this is the version an inspector will examine. Read Policy DM2b and the policies map before 21 December.
- Comments now have to be about soundness. Say which policy you mean, why it is not justified, effective or consistent with national policy, and what change would fix it.
- Nothing is approved yet. No homes are permitted by this plan. The inspector can change it or remove sites.
- Until a plan is adopted, the government’s 28,100 figure applies to planning applications across Southend, the report says.
To comment, use the Local Plan website and name the policy or site reference you are responding to, as the council asks. Our planning applications page explains how to comment on individual schemes.
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