Tendring District Council (TDC) may have to go back to the drawing board with work on its Local Plan if the Government pushes ahead with proposals to introduce “strict” mandatory housebuilding targets.

At a meeting of the council’s Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee on Monday, 16 September, councillors heard the district’s housebuilding target could increase from 550 homes a year to 1,043 homes a year from 2026.

TDC had already begun work on reviewing its Local Plan – the district’s blueprint for future growth - and extending its timeframe to 2041.

It had been expecting to consult residents on different options for accommodating 3,000-4,000 extra homes in Tendring, on top of the 9,600 already under construction or in the pipeline.

The committee agreed to postpone the consultation, after the Government launched a consultation over proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, which will force councils to plan for significant increases in housebuilding - as part of the Government’s ambition to build 1.5million new homes across the country over the next five years.

Councillor Andy Baker, TDC’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, said: “We may have to go back to the drawing board with work on our Local Plan following the Government’s proposals to introduce strict mandatory housebuilding targets.

“This Council understands the Government wants to make housebuilding targets mandatory – and we welcome the drive for increasing housing, which will help to tackle homelessness and boost economic growth.

“But because there is no consideration whatsoever of local factors, housebuilding targets in some locations are going to be challenging if not impossible to achieve.

“As we have recognised with our approach to the Tendring and Colchester Borders Garden Community, it is vital that infrastructure is in place to support new homes, and this is key to ensuring that house building is supported by relevant infrastructure.

“Therefore, for councils to be able to deliver the high numbers proposed, there will need to be significant support from central government to forward fund key pieces of infrastructure including transport, utilities, schools and health and/or subsidising the delivery of affordable and social housing.”

“We can allocate all the land we want for housing, but unless developers actually build on sites that they have permission for then we cannot hit the targets and risk new homes on inappropriate sites.”

A report by council officers suggests that the sheer scale of the proposed increase in housebuilding targets will limit the number of practical alternatives that are realistically capable and it is highly likely that options going forward will entail significant growth in the Harwich area and potentially two or more new Garden Villages.

It is feared that if the Government’s proposed mandatory housebuilding targets are brought in, the Council will find itself in a position in January 2026 where, overnight, a comfortable five-year supply under the 550-home target could become a significant shortfall – which could open the district up to speculative development.

The Government’s proposed changes are the subject of a public consultation, running for eight weeks until 24 September.

TDC’s consultation and the Local Plan review have now been put on hold until after the Government publishes its response to its proposed changes

The Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee also backed a draft response to the Government’s consultation, which highlights the key concern as being the imposition of “top-down housebuilding targets” on a mandatory basis with no scope for local circumstances, constraints or exceptional circumstances to be taken into account.

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