Earlier in 2025, residents across the city were given the chance to have their say on the latest proposals as part of Sheffield’s Local Plan process.
The consultation followed a review of the Draft Local Plan by independent Government Inspectors in 2024, which led them to ask the Council to identify additional sites for 3,500 more homes and over 50 more hectares of employment land. In response to the Inspectors’ request, Sheffield City Council proposed 14 sites within the Green Belt to accommodate the additional homes and employment land. This followed a process of assessing the sites taking into account the overall sustainability of a site, the delivery of sustainable communities, site availability and sites that have been promoted through the current local plan process.
In May this year, Full Council approved submission of the proposed 14 sites in the Green Belt for consideration by the Government Inspectors.
The consultation started in May and lasted for six weeks, closing in July this year with 3,657 people submitting their opinion on the proposed additional site allocations. Those replies were sent directly to the Planning Inspectorate with the latest public hearings set to review the responses and decide on the next course of action for the plan.
When are the hearings taking place?
• The first public hearing sessions will begin on Monday 29th September, starting at 10am, at Sheffield Town Hall until Thursday 2nd October. Those hearings will look into the public response to the site allocations.
• A second session will start on Monday 13th October, at 10am, at the Showroom/Workstation and will run until Wednesday 15th October.
• Hearing sessions on the other aspects of the Sheffield Plan will then be held in Howden House in Sheffield on Thursday 16th and Friday 17th.
• A third week of hearings, should they be required, has been scheduled in for Monday 17th November until Friday 21st November.
Who can attend the public hearings?
All sessions of the hearings will be open for anyone to attend, subject to room capacity. The sessions will also be streamed live on the Sheffield City Council YouTube channel should people want to watch but be unable to attend in person.
Who can speak at the hearings?
While members of the public can attend every session of the hearings in person, not everyone who attends will be able to speak. The independent Government Inspectors will have already notified those who they want to hear from during each session with only those invited to speak being able to do so.
What happens after the hearings have concluded?
Once all the hearings have concluded, the independent Inspectors will review the information they have been given and will compile a preliminary report of their findings. The report could conclude that Sheffield’s Local Plan is sound and can continue or propose ‘main modifications’ that are needed to make the plan ‘sound’. The Inspectors could also conclude that the plan is unsound and cannot be made sound through modifications, in which case the Council would be asked to produce an entirely new plan. If the Inspectors recommend main modifications, those modifications will be subject to further public consultation next year.
You can find out more about the Sheffield Local Plan by clicking here.