Thousands of new homes could be built across Tendring over the next 20 years – including three new garden villages and a major expansion at Harwich – under proposals aimed at meeting new mandatory housing targets and shaping the district’s future.
Tendring District Council’s (TDC) Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee has endorsed a preferred spatial strategy setting out where future housing, employment and mixed-use development could take place across the district up to 2042 and beyond.
This decision marks a major step in the full-scale review of the Local Plan – the blueprint for future growth and planning policy in Tendring – which was paused last year while the Government consulted on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and introduced new mandatory housebuilding targets.
Under these changes, Tendring’s annual housing requirement will rise from 550 to 1,063 homes per year from January 2026. This means the council must plan for an additional 7,000–8,000 homes by 2041, on top of the approximately 10,700 already in the pipeline (sites that either already have planning permission, are allocated in the current Local Plan, or are expected to come forward on small sites).
Following public consultation earlier this year on four potential strategies, the preferred strategy is a hybrid of options A and B, focusing growth along the A120 corridor and in villages with railway stations, while spreading proportionate development across other towns and villages.
This approach reflects consultation feedback, site availability and technical evidence, and concentrates the greatest amount of development where infrastructure and transport links already exist.
The proposed distribution of approximately 7,400 additional homes includes four major developments:
• Major expansion at Harwich & Dovercourt: Around 1,882 homes through a mixed-use urban extension south-west of the town off Long Road and Oakley Road.
• Hare Green Garden Village: A new settlement in the Frating, Great Bromley and Hare Green area, with up to 4,500 homes long-term and 1,700 deliverable by 2042, along with infrastructure and land for employment.
• Horsley Cross Garden Village: A second new settlement north of the A120, with up to 6,000 homes long-term and 1,700 also deliverable by 2042, along with infrastructure and land for employment.
• Weeley Garden Village: A smaller garden village of around 900 homes in a planned western expansion of the village which also includes community facilities and employment land.
Additional growth will also be distributed across Frinton, Walton and Kirby Cross; Manningtree, Lawford and Mistley; Brightlingsea; Alresford, Great Bentley and Thorpe-le-Soken; Little Clacton and St Osyth; and smaller rural villages.
Altogether, these new allocations across the district could deliver about 8,800 homes, bringing the overall number of new homes expected between 2025 and 2042 to around 19,500 when combined with existing allocations and windfall sites. This figure already includes approximately 4,525 homes planned for Clacton under the current Local Plan.
As well as housing, the preferred strategy includes proposals for employment land allocations to support economic growth and job creation. Much of this land will form part of, or sit alongside, the proposed garden villages and the existing Tendring Colchester Borders Garden Community, ensuring new communities are supported by local jobs and infrastructure.
Councillor Andy Baker, TDC’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, said: “The new mandatory targets from Government mean we now have to plan for almost twice as many homes as before – and that’s a huge challenge for Tendring.
“It will affect most towns and villages in some way, and to meet this requirement we’re looking at creating several new garden villages alongside proportionate growth elsewhere.
“This isn’t just about numbers - it’s about making sure new development comes with the right infrastructure, jobs and community facilities so that growth is sustainable and benefits local people.
“We’ve already listened to residents through the initial consultation earlier this year, and we will continue to do so as the plan develops.
“With major changes to local government on the horizon, this could be the last Local Plan prepared by Tendring District Council in its current form.
“That makes this review even more important, because it’s our chance to shape the long-term future of Tendring before decisions move to a new unitary authority – and we want residents to be part of that conversation.”
The next stage is to prepare the Preferred Options Draft Local Plan, which will also include detailed planning policies alongside the preferred spatial strategy and specific sites for housing and employment.
This draft will return to the Committee early in the New Year before being recommended to Full Council for formal public consultation in the first few months of 2026.
Residents will have a further chance to have their say when an updated draft of the Local Plan is published for is consultation in 2026. After this, the plan is expected to be submitted to Government in late 2026, followed by examination by a planning inspector in summer 2027 and final adoption in winter 2027.
