Residents across Sheffield will be invited to have their say on the latest proposals for the Local Plan.
A six-week public consultation will be launched at the end of May and run until the middle of July with the responses being reviewed by independent Government Inspectors.
Proposed additional sites for development were approved by the Full Council on Wednesday 14th May and, together with sites already proposed by the Council, will see 38,000 new homes, 265 hectares of employment land and tens of thousands of new jobs created over the period of the plan up to 2039. Approval of the proposals allows the Local plan to progress to the next stage in the process which is a public consultation.
Why do we need a Local Plan?
The plan, once adopted, will set out new standards for future development in Sheffield, such as higher environmental standards to reduce carbon emissions and better space standards for new homes. It will help the city deliver more affordable housing, support regeneration and new investment, preserve our heritage areas, and enable more coordinated delivery of infrastructure, including planning for future health and community services.
Any site proposed within the Local Plan will have to pass several ‘golden rules’ before any housing can be built on it. These rules include sites having affordable housing included in them, 30% in the South, Southwest and Northwest of the city and 10% in all other areas, and new infrastructure must be delivered at the same time as the new homes and employment developments. Sites will also need good access to green spaces with developers expected to demonstrate an increase of 10% in biodiversity.
Why parts of Sheffield’s Green Belt had to be considered?
In 2024, Independent Government Inspectors held a series of public hearings looking into the detail of the Local Plan, which proposed continuing the Council’s Brownfield First policy, with the vast majority of all development on brownfield sites. It did not propose building on any greenfield Green Belt land.
As a result of the hearings, the Council received a letter in February 2025 from the Inspectors asking for additional land to be found for a further 3,539 homes, above the 34,680 proposed, and an increase in employment land.
The Inspectors accepted the Council’s rationale around the need to regenerate the urban areas and focus growth in the centre of Sheffield but also recognised that releasing some Green Belt land could help to meet a wider range of housing needs, including the need for affordable housing.
The Council has explored every option before considering the release of any Green Belt for development. However, it was determined that there are no more available brownfield sites left to allocate which means that in exceptional circumstances, a small number of green belt sites are being considered. The sites account for only 3.6% of the land currently allocated as green belt, which means that over 96% of the Green Belt will remain untouched and protected.
The public will now have a chance to have their say on the proposals.
What happens next?
The public will be able to provide their views on the proposed new sites during the upcoming six-week consultation period (Thursday 29th May to Friday 11 July).
All the consultation feedback will be considered by the Government Inspectors - the feedback will not come back to the Council again for consideration.
More details about this consultation and how to get involved will be shared in due course. Those interested are asked to keep an eye on social media for updates and where appropriate for them, attend in-person consultation events. There is also a mailing list that people can sign up to for information: https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/UKSHEFFIELD/signup/46673
The Local Plan is a plan to ensure we have the homes and employment sites that the city needs, it’s a plan to ensure that new homes are supported by good local services, public transport and with access to green spaces. Without a Local Plan we are at risk of unplanned, speculative development. The vast majority of new development will be on brownfield land and having a Local Plan will provide better protection for our green spaces. It will also help the city to deliver more affordable housing, support regeneration of more brownfield land and bring in new investment.
We now move to a really crucial part of the process, and I would urge everyone in the city to get involved in the six-week public consultation. It’s a fundamental and important principle of our planning system that residents have their say and I encourage people to share their views. Later this year there will be a further round of public hearings, chaired by the independent Planning Inspectors, they will review all of the public submissions from the consultation before deciding on next steps.
Cllr Tom Hunt, Leader of Sheffield City Council