Inspectors warn proposed timescales are ‘unrealistic’
Government planning inspectors have told Wiltshire Council to withdraw its 37,000-home local plan that has been nine years in the making.
The inspectors deemed the two work programmes proposed by the council to deliver its 2020-2038 plan “unrealistic” and said the ambitions would take “much longer” to realise than anticipated.
This is partly because either programme would “result in an overly long examination” that is likely to render calculations made about housing need outdated by the time the proposed work is completed.
They recommended either withdrawing the application voluntarily or asking the inspectors to issue a report on the plan as submitted, which they warned would “inevitably lead to a recommendation that the plan is not adopted.”
Their letter to the council, which was sent in late February, also said that it is “unclear” whether there are sufficient available sites within its strategic housing and economic land availability assessment’ to deliver the proposals.
In response to the recommendation, Nic Thomas, director of planning, economy and regeneration at Wiltshire Council, said the local authority is “extremely disappointed and frustrated” by the conclusions.
In a letter sent last week (12 March), he wrote: “Withdrawing the plan, which I should add has taken nine years to achieve this point using considerable resources, provides no benefit to the government aspirations for housing and economic growth, and only serves to disengage and frustrate communities and our political leaders.”
The recommendations follow several hearings carried out in 2025.
The cabinet and council are expected to make a decision to either scrap the local plan or proceed with an inspector report at meetings scheduled on 6 and 19 May 2026.
No comments yet