October 2025
Hart has issued a ‘call for sites’ consultation to help shape the new Hart Local Plan, inviting landowners, site promoters, developers and other interested parties to suggest sites that could be included in the new local plan to help meet the area’s future needs. The consultation runs from 29 August 2025 until 5pm on 10 October 2025.
See https://www.hart.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/call-sites.
Hart will then publish the list of proposed sites and invite comments - there may be some locally that affect us. Once a site is adopted in the Local Plan it will be extremely difficult to oppose planning permission on that site.
September 2025
The Council has started the process of developing a new Local Plan for Hart.
The new Local Plan will set out the vision and framework for the future development of our area, with policies used to decide planning applications. The goal is to address the district’s need for new homes, commercial development and supporting infrastructure in a sustainable manner, to protect and enhance the environment and address climate change.
See https://www.hart.gov.uk/planning-and-building-control/planning-policy/new-hart-local-plan
The timetable for the new Hart Local Plan is set out in a Local Development Scheme approved at Cabinet on 16th September 2025. See Local Development Scheme September 2025
The formal start of the Local Plan process is planned for February 2026 and the process is expected to run to finalisation and adoption of the plan in October 2028. But in April 2028 Local Government Reorganisation will take effect, which means that progress beyond that date on the Hart Local Plan will be the responsibility of a new Unitary Authority.
May 2025
From May 2025, the housing trajectory in the existing Local Plan needed updating, which has resulted in the policies relating to housing supply in Hart’s Local Plan being ‘out of date’ and the Local Plan, which shows where development is planned, is vulnerable to challenge at appeal.
October 2024
The government proposes that Hart must more than double its delivery of new homes from the current 297 per year to 734 per year.
Link to Oct 2024: Hart gets hammered with increased mandatory housing target - FACE IT
December 2024
A review to determine whether the Local Plan needs updating must be concluded by 30th April 2025, five years after adoption. A report on the local plan review is currently scheduled to go to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 10th December 2024 and to Cabinet on 2nd January 2025. There is as yet no timetable for the next local plan.
Click here to see the archive for the previous Local Plan period