Residents across Tendring will soon be invited to give their views on where new homes, jobs and community facilities should be located as part of the full review of the Local Plan – the district’s blueprint for future development.
Proposals set out how thousands of new homes could be delivered over the next 20 years, including three new garden villages and a major expansion at Harwich, to meet the Government’s new mandatory housing targets and shape the district’s long-term future.
At a meeting on 27 January, councillors endorsed the council’s preferred spatial strategy, which identifies where future housing, employment land and mixed use development could be located up to 2042 and beyond. This will form the basis of a six week public consultation expected to launch next month.
The review follows a pause in 2024 while the Government consulted on changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). These changes mean Tendring’s annual housing requirement will almost double — from 550 to 1,063 homes per year from January 2026. As a result, the council must plan for a further 7,000–8,000 homes by 2042, in addition to the 10,700 already in the pipeline.
Following a public consultation on four potential strategies last year, the preferred strategy focuses on growth along the A120 corridor and in villages with railway stations, while spreading proportionate development across other towns and villages.
The proposed distribution of approximately 7,400 additional homes includes four major developments:
• Harwich & Dovercourt: A major mixed‑use urban extension delivering around 1,650 homes south‑west of the town, between Long Road and Oakley Road.
• Hare Green Garden Village: A new settlement near Frating, Great Bromley and Hare Green. Up to 4,500 homes long‑term, with 1,700 expected by 2042, plus employment land and key infrastructure.
• Horsley Cross Garden Village: A second garden community north of the A120, also up to 6,000 homes long‑term and 1,700 deliverable by 2042, with supporting infrastructure.
• Weeley Garden Village: Around 900 homes in a planned western extension, including community and employment land.
Additional development would be spread across Frinton, Walton and Kirby Cross; Manningtree, Lawford and Mistley; Brightlingsea; Alresford, Great Bentley and Thorpe‑le‑Soken; Little Clacton; St Osyth; and other rural villages.
In total, combined new allocations could deliver approximately 8,800 homes, bringing the overall number of homes expected between 2025 and 2042 to around 19,500, including the 4,525 already planned for Clacton under the current Local Plan.
Speaking at the meeting of the full council, Councillor Carlo Guglielmi, chairman of TDC’s Planning Policy and Local Plan Committee, said: “The Local Plan is one of the most important documents the council has to produce.
“We have reached the next important milestone – the decision to go out to formal public consultation on the preferred options – and give our residents the opportunity to have their say on what we know will be a topic of significant public interest.
“As this could well be the last ever Local Plan this council produces before Local Government Reorganisation, it is all the more important that we do all we can to put Tendring in the best place going forward, and plan positively for the future – not just in response to immediate pressures, but to establish a vision for growth for future generations.”
It is expected that the plan will be submitted to Government in late 2026, followed by examination by a planning inspector in summer 2027 and final adoption in winter 2027.
Councillor Andy Baker, TDC’s Cabinet Member for Housing and Planning, urged residents to have their say as part of the upcoming consultation.
“With the Government now requiring us to plan for more than double the number of homes than before, Tendring faces a significant challenge — one that will have an impact across all our communities,” he said.
“To meet this scale of growth, we’re proposing new garden communities alongside sensible, proportionate development elsewhere.
“This is about more than meeting targets. It’s about securing the infrastructure, jobs and community facilities needed to make growth work for local people.”
Further details about the consultation will be published in the coming weeks.
