Bromsgrove planning: Local Plan due 2029, council ends 2028

Bromsgrove District Council published a Local Plan timetable on 29 June 2026. Read it alongside the Government’s decision on local government reorganisation, published a fortnight later, and you get the defining fact of planning in this district:

The new Bromsgrove District Local Plan is timetabled for adoption in April 2029. Bromsgrove District Council is due to be abolished on 1 April 2028.

The plan will be written by a council that will not exist to adopt it. The work passes to the new North Worcestershire Council, and the timetable already assumes it. That is worth knowing before you spend an evening writing a consultation response, because a consultation is open right now. Here is what is proposed, what the numbers are, and when the deadline falls.

The consultation open now: 24 July to 4 September

Councillors agreed on 15 July to run a scoping consultation, and it opened on 24 July 2026. Responses must be in writing by 5pm on Friday 4 September 2026; the council says late responses will not be considered.

Be clear about what this stage is and is not. Under the new Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026, which came into force on 25 March 2026, the Government decides what a council may consult on at this stage. The scoping consultation is limited to two things: the content of the Local Plan, and how you want to be consulted as it is prepared. It does not identify development sites and it does not draft policies.

Councillor Sue Baxter, the Cabinet Member for Planning, put it plainly: “it is not about choosing development sites. It is about setting the foundations for the Local Plan, identifying the objectives it should meet and how local people want to be involved in shaping it.”

The council also says that if you responded to last summer’s Draft Development Strategy consultation about specific sites, you do not need to repeat yourself. Those responses, around 8,000 of them, are being carried into the new process.

You can respond online through the council’s Smart Survey, by email to bromsgroveplan@bromsgroveandredditch.gov.uk, or by post to Strategic Planning, Bromsgrove District Council, Parkside, Market Street, Bromsgrove, B61 8DA. The documents are also on paper at Parkside and in the libraries at Alvechurch, Bromsgrove, Catshill, Hagley, Rubery and Wythall.

The number driving everything: 12,155 homes

The current Bromsgrove District Plan was adopted in January 2017 and runs to 2030. Its replacement will run to 2044.

The Government’s standard method for calculating Local Housing Need gives Bromsgrove 12,155 homes. The council’s June 2025 Draft Development Strategy set out the arithmetic: about 3,000 of those are already accounted for by existing planning permissions and allocations in the current plan, leaving just over 9,000 homes to find land for.

The council tried to argue the number down. In September 2024 it told the Government it opposed raising the affordability multiplier in the standard method from 0.25 to 0.6, and said the resulting addition of 318 dwellings a year was “not something the Council can support”. Its own account of what happened next is blunt: the key points “had no bearing on the final changes made to the Standard Method”, and “there is no mechanism to challenge the changes made by Government.”

The brownfield problem, in one figure

Every council under housing pressure says brownfield first. Bromsgrove’s own evidence explains why that will not go far here.

Of the 400-plus sites assessed for development suitability, only 26 were brownfield. After discounting and after setting aside sites better suited to employment use, the total housing yield the council identified from brownfield land across the whole district was 171 dwellings, with a possible 16 more.

Against a requirement of 12,155, brownfield land supplies about 1.4 per cent. That is the reason Green Belt release is on the table, and it is the reason the council commissioned an Exceptional Circumstances Paper to justify it. A Green Belt Assessment was done in 2022; the council says further Green Belt and Grey Belt work is now needed because the Government introduced the Grey Belt concept afterwards.

Where the draft strategy proposed to build

The site list below is from the Draft Development Strategy consulted on between 30 June and 20 October 2025. It is not adopted policy and it is not the current consultation. It is, however, the most detailed public statement the council has made about where the homes might go, and the scoping consultation explicitly rolls those responses forward.

Two patterns are worth noticing. Frankley alone carries just under a third of the shortfall. The council’s reasoning is that growth along the boundary with the West Midlands conurbation is the most sustainable and accessible option, and that a single allocation of around 3,000 dwellings there “provides the most comprehensive option” for delivering the infrastructure alongside the homes.

And the villages are not being spared. Barnt Green, Hagley, Alvechurch, Catshill and Stoke Prior between them account for 2,475 homes in the draft, in places whose Green Belt boundaries the council itself describes as “tightly drawn”.

A live scheme: 50 homes on Windsor Street

While the plan grinds on, the council is moving one of its own brownfield sites. On 17 June 2026 the Cabinet agreed to take the Windsor Street site in the town centre to its next phase, clearing the way for up to 50 new homes with a strong focus on affordable housing, subject to an outline planning application.

The land is in the second phase of remediation, paid for with external funding, to make it safe to build on. Councillor Baxter framed it as the alternative to building in the countryside: bringing brownfield land back into use “will help meet local housing needs while reducing pressure to develop on the Green Belt.”

Fifty homes is a real contribution to a town centre, and on land that is currently doing nothing. Set against 12,155 it is also another way of seeing the scale of what brownfield can and cannot do here.

The full timetable, and why April 2029 matters

The 30-month clock does not start when the notice is published. It starts when the council passes Gateway 1, which it expects to do in October 2026.

Now set that against reorganisation. On 16 July 2026 the Government confirmed that Worcestershire’s seven councils will be replaced from 1 April 2028 by two unitary authorities: North Worcestershire Council, covering Bromsgrove, Redditch and Wyre Forest, and South Worcestershire Council, covering Malvern Hills, Worcester and Wychavon. Elections to the shadow councils are expected in May 2027, and those shadow bodies then spend a year preparing the handover.

So the consultation on the proposed plan in March 2028 falls in the final weeks of Bromsgrove District Council’s existence. The submission, the examination and the adoption all fall to its successor. The seven council leaders, including Bromsgrove’s Cllr Karen May, said in a joint statement that “the debate is now over and we have a clear direction from the Government.”

What this means in practice for residents:

• The scoping consultation is still worth answering. It sets what the plan covers and how you will be consulted, and those decisions carry through to whoever inherits the work.
• A site in a draft is not a permission. It means the principle of building there has been judged acceptable, which makes a later application harder to refuse. The plan stage is where to engage.
• Applications keep being decided meanwhile. The adopted plan dates from January 2017 and runs out in 2030, and while its replacement is written, individual decisions and appeals carry more weight, not less. You can view and comment on live applications through the shared Bromsgrove and Redditch planning portal.

Frequently asked questions

How many houses does Bromsgrove have to build?

12,155 over the plan period, set by the Government’s standard method for Local Housing Need. About 3,000 are already committed through permissions and existing allocations, leaving just over 9,000 to be found.

When is the Bromsgrove Local Plan consultation deadline?

5pm on Friday 4 September 2026 for the current scoping consultation. The council says responses received after that will not be considered.

Will Bromsgrove’s Green Belt be built on?

The council’s own evidence says it cannot meet the number without it. Brownfield land across the district was assessed at 171 homes against a 12,155 requirement, and the council has produced an Exceptional Circumstances Paper to justify Green Belt changes. Further Green Belt and Grey Belt assessment work is under way.

Where are the proposed housing sites in Bromsgrove?

In the June 2025 draft: Frankley (3,000), six sites around Bromsgrove town (2,570), Wythall (1,235), Catshill (605), Hagley (530), Alvechurch (500), Stoke Prior (500) and Barnt Green (340). These are draft figures, not permissions.

What happens to the Local Plan when the council is abolished?

The timetable runs to adoption in April 2029, a year after Bromsgrove District Council ceases to exist on 1 April 2028. The work will pass to the new North Worcestershire unitary formed with Redditch and Wyre Forest.

How do I comment on a planning application in Bromsgrove?

Through the Public Access portal that Bromsgrove shares with Redditch Borough Council. Because it is a shared portal, Redditch applications appear alongside Bromsgrove ones, so check the address.

Related

• Bromsgrove house prices: the affordability pressure the housing number is calculated from.
• Bromsgrove roadworks and travel: the £49.7m A38 scheme, part-funded by developer contributions.
• Bromsgrove train times.
• Things to do in Bromsgrove.

Sources

• Bromsgrove District Council, scoping consultation for the consultation dates, scope, regulations and how to respond.
• Bromsgrove District Council, emerging Local Plan timetable for the full stage-by-stage timetable, the April 2029 adoption date, the 2044 plan period and the January 2017 adoption of the current plan.
• Bromsgrove District Council, notice of intention to commence local plan preparation for the 29 June 2026 notice and the October 2026 Gateway 1 expectation.
• Bromsgrove District Council, councillors back next step in preparing new Local Plan for the 15 July decision, the 8,000 previous responses and Cllr Baxter’s quotes.
• Bromsgrove District Local Plan: Draft Development Strategy, June 2025 (PDF) for the 12,155 figure, the 3,000 commitments and the full site table totalling 9,280.
• Bromsgrove Local Plan frequently asked questions, June 2025 (PDF) for the brownfield site assessment, the 171-dwelling yield and the council’s failed objection to the affordability multiplier.
• Bromsgrove District Council, housing agreed for Windsor Street site for the 17 June Cabinet decision and the 50-home figure.
• Bromsgrove District Council, future of Worcestershire’s councils decided for the 16 July 2026 Government decision and the 1 April 2028 date, with Worcestershire County Council’s reorganisation page for the May 2027 shadow elections and GOV.UK’s consultation on proposals for local government reorganisation in Worcestershire for which districts form which unitary.

We will update this page when the council publishes its summary of the scoping consultation, due in October 2026.