We are working on a new draft Sheffield Local Plan which will guide the future of the city by setting out how and where development will take place up to 2034. We are calling it the ‘Sheffield Plan’ and, once it has been adopted, it will replace the Sheffield Core Strategy (2009) and ‘saved’ policies the Sheffield Unitary Development Plan (1998). More information about the Core Strategy and Unitary Development Plan can be found on the Adopted Sheffield Local Plan page. 

The first stage in producing the new plan was the Citywide Options for Growth to 2034 document. Consultation on that document took place between 11 November 2015 and 15 January 2016.

Local Development Scheme

The Local Development Scheme sets out the timetable for producing the new Sheffield Plan and other Local Development Documents. The latest Local Development Scheme was published in July 2016 but is now out of date.  However, it sets out the steps involved in preparing the new Plan.

Consultation on the Draft Policies and Site Options document (under Regulation 18) will now take place in 2018.  The overall timetable is currently being reviewed.

Call for Sites

The Call for Sites 2014 consultation took place from 14 July to 22 August 2014. All submitted sites and premises have been subject to detailed assessment to evaluate the suitability, availability and achievability which has informed the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) November 2015 update.  

The suitability of sites in the Green Belt has not been assessed in the 2015 update of the SHLAA. These sites will be assessed through work on the new Sheffield Plan, as part of a comprehensive Green Belt review and will be included in the SHLAA, which will be published alongside the draft Sheffield Plan in 2018. 

If a site is assessed as being suitable for housing in the SHLAA, this does not mean that planning permission will be granted for new housing on that site or that sites will be allocated in the Sheffield Plan. We will undertake sustainability appraisal to identify the most suitable sites.

Whilst we will accept Call For Sites submissions beyond the end of the Sheffield Plan Citywide Options consultation period (November 2015 to January 2016), there is no guarantee that these submissions will be able to be included in the next update of the SHLAA.

Next steps

It is intended to publish a draft of the Sheffield Plan in 2018. This will set out a vision of how Sheffield will change and grow in the future. It will also include site development options.

The City Council will publish responses to the comments made on the earlier Citywide Options for Growth document when the informal “Draft Sheffield Plan” (under Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012) is issued for public consultation in 2018.

The timescale for subsequent steps in the plan process are also being reviewed but we are working towards formal adoption of the new Sheffield Plan in 2020. This will cover the period to 2034.