Norwich Local Plan: 18 sites put forward, comment by 28 Sept

Eighteen sites inside Norwich have been put forward by landowners for the new Greater Norwich Local Plan, and the first public consultation on that plan closes at 5pm on Monday 28 September 2026.

The register of submitted sites covers 87.9 hectares of the city. All but one are brownfield. Three are large enough that the councils classify them as strategic, meaning 500 homes or more.

None of them has been assessed yet, and none is being consulted on now. That matters, and it is set out below.

What is actually open for comment

The consultation that opened on 17 August is a scoping consultation, made under Regulation 20 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026. It asks three things:

• whether the baseline data gathered to inform the plan is right
• what people think of the emerging vision and objectives
• whether the proposed engagement strategy for the rest of the process is the right approach

Norwich City Council’s formal notice says the consultation is aimed primarily at statutory consultation bodies. It then states plainly that “any person or organisation may make representations on these matters”. You do not need to be a parish council or a developer to reply.

Responses should be made online where possible. They can also be emailed to gnlp@norfolk.gov.uk, and copies of the notice can be read during office hours at City Hall on St Peters Street, or at the Horizon Centre on Broadland Business Park.

Why there is a new plan at all

The current Greater Norwich Local Plan was adopted only in March 2024, by Norwich City Council on 12 March, South Norfolk on 25 March and Broadland on 28 March.

It is already being replaced. The councils give two reasons: the government has changed the way housing need is calculated, and it has introduced a new plan-making system that changes how local plans are prepared. The replacement will run to 2045 and will cover Broadland, Norwich and South Norfolk, but not the Broads Authority area, which is its own planning authority. Minerals and waste stay with Norfolk County Council.

The 18 Norwich sites

A Call for Sites ran in February and March this year and reopened from 15 June to 13 July. 479 sites were submitted across Greater Norwich. These are the ones inside the city boundary.

Four things stand out in that list.

The east of the city dominates the housing. Carrow Works and the Deal Ground sit next to each other on Bracondale, and between them account for 31 hectares of the 88. Both are put forward for 500 homes or more.

Duke Street is the densest proposal by far. The former Eastern Electricity Board site is 0.84 hectares and is submitted for 500 units or more. Carrow Works carries the same housing band on twenty times the land.

The biggest single site is not housing at all. Imperial Park at Norwich Airport is 37.29 hectares, over 40 per cent of the total, and is proposed for employment use.

Almost nothing greenfield has been offered. Seventeen of the eighteen submissions are brownfield. The single greenfield entry is 0.85 hectares off Holt Road, for employment.

These sites are not being decided now

The councils are explicit about this, and it is the point most likely to be misread.

The submissions are published for information only. No assessment has been made of whether any of them is suitable. That assessment happens over the coming months, and the public gets its say on the sites themselves at a later consultation, currently timetabled for June and July 2027.

In the councils’ own words, putting a site forward “does not mean that it will be allocated in the new Local Plan”.

The road to 2029

The councils expect to start the formal 30 month plan preparation period, known as Gateway 1, on 30 October 2026. Submission for independent examination is pencilled in for 19 October 2028, and adoption for 30 April 2029.

That timetable is published as open data and the councils say it will be updated as milestones are met, so the dates beyond next year should be read as intentions rather than fixtures.

What it means for you

If you have a view on what the next twenty years of building in Norwich should prioritise, this is the stage at which the questions are still open. Once the vision and objectives are set, later consultations argue within them.

• Deadline: 5pm on Monday 28 September 2026. Late responses do not have to be considered.
• How: online through the Greater Norwich Local Plan consultation portal, or by email to gnlp@norfolk.gov.uk. Questions on 01603 306603.
• What to comment on now: the evidence base, the vision and objectives, and how the councils should consult people from here on.
• What to wait for: the sites. Objecting to Carrow Works or Cremorne Lane now is premature; that consultation is expected in June and July 2027.
• If you want to be told when the next stage opens, the notice lets you ask to be notified at each future step, including when the plan is submitted for examination.

For applications being decided under the current plan, see our Norwich planning news page.

Sources

• Notice of Local Plan Scoping Consultation, Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045, Norwich City Council, published 17 August 2026, for the Regulation 20 basis, the 5pm 28 September deadline, who may respond, the contact details and the notification rights.
• The Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045 opens its Scoping Consultation, Norwich City Council, for the three subjects of the consultation and the position on the Call for Sites submissions.
• Notice of Intention to Commence, Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045, Norwich City Council, published 30 June 2026, for the plan area, the exclusion of the Broads Authority and minerals and waste, and the Gateway 1 date.
• Local plan timetable, 30 June 2026, Norwich City Council open data, for every milestone date in the timeline, including examination and adoption.
• Call for Sites Report 2026, Greater Norwich Development Partnership, for the 479 sites submitted, and its Norwich City section for each site’s address, area, proposed use, scale band and brownfield or greenfield status.
• Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045, Greater Norwich Development Partnership, for the Call for Sites dates and the reasons a new plan is being prepared, and the GNLP homepage for the March 2024 adoption dates of the current plan.