Surrey Heath Borough Council is preparing a new Local Plan to cover the period up to 2038. Once adopted, the Surrey Heath Local Plan will play an important role in shaping Surrey Heath's future including how our town and villages develop, protecting and enhancing our natural environment, developing our local economy, improving leisure and visitor facilities, and supporting more sustainable forms of travel.
View the Pre-Submission Local Plan and key documents
What is a local plan?
The Surrey Heath Local Plan will set out a vision for how Surrey Heath will develop as a place up to 2038. It looks at our future needs for development and provides guidance as to where it will go and what it will look like. Our Borough Councillors and our planning officers will use it to help them decide whether to approve or refuse planning applications in our Borough.
Publication of the Local Plan
The council published the ‘Pre-Submission’ or ‘Regulation 19’ version of the Surrey Heath Local Plan for comments between 7 August and 20 September 2024. Whilst the period for comments has now closed you can view the Pre-Submission Local Plan and associated documents on our Planning Policy Consultation Portal.
Evidence supporting the preparation of the Local Plan can be viewed on our Local Plan evidence base webpage.
Next steps - submission
The Surrey Heath Pre-Submission Local Plan, along with the representations received at the publication stage and the evidence supporting it will be submitted to the Secretary of State for independent examination in public by a Planning Inspector.
The Plan will be submitted in accordance with our published timetable in Winter 2024/2025 and a dedicated Local Plan Examination webpage will be set up. Once submitted, a Programme Officer appointed by the Council will act as the liaison between the appointed Inspector, the Council and other interested parties.
The independent examination is the final stage of the Local Plan process before it can be legally adopted. Further information will be provided once the Local Plan has been submitted for Examination but some procedural guidance can be found on the Planning Inspectorate section of the GOV.UK website (external link).
Earlier consultation
Regulation 18 Draft Local Plan: Preferred Options (2019-2038)
The Council consulted on a Regulation 18 Draft Local Plan: Preferred Options version of the local plan for an eight-week period, from 12pm on Monday 14 March to Monday 9 May 2022. The consultation has now closed. However, you can find out more information about the consultation and the questions asked on our consultation portal.
Draft Surrey Heath Local Plan Additional Site Allocations for Gypsy and Travellers and Travelling Showpeople (2019-2038) Regulation 18
The Council consulted on additional site allocation options for Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople accommodation. The consultation ran from Monday 8 August, from 12pm to Monday 19 September 2022. The consultation has now closed. You can find out more information about the consultation on our consultation portal.
Timetable
Further detail on the Local Plan timetable can be found in the Local Development Scheme. The preparation of a Local Plan is a long process that goes through a number of key stages. Our Local Development Scheme (LDS) sets out the timetable for the preparation of the local plan through to its adoption.