Draft Local Plan update.
The Administration has decided to pause bringing forward the draft Local Plan for Regulation 19 consultation at this stage and will instead seek additional time from the Government beyond the current 31 December 2026 deadline.
The Administration remains committed to securing an up-to-date Local Plan for Southend. In the meantime, planning applications will continue to be considered against the city's existing adopted planning policies and national planning policy.
Cllr Daniel Cowan, Leader of Southend-on-Sea City Council, said: "We've listened carefully to residents and councillors throughout this process, balancing strongly held views, the needs of our city and the national requirements placed upon us. Our draft Local Plan seeks to meet those requirements, but doing so inevitably means considering difficult compromises.
"We know that there isn't currently a majority for the draft Plan, so we intend to use the time to listen, look again at what can reasonably be changed and try to find a way forward that can command majority support. That is the responsible thing to do and is how we have always approached this process.
"This doesn't mean Southend doesn't need a new Local Plan. Quite the opposite. Our current planning policies are badly out of date and every delay means the stronger protections we want around HMOs, infrastructure and inappropriate development take longer to put in place. That is what is at stake.
“There are difficult choices involved and there isn’t a version of the Local Plan that can simply ignore national planning law or housing need. But residents also need confidence that when development happens, the infrastructure will come with it. After decades of seeing development without enough supporting infrastructure, we understand why that confidence needs to be earned.
“We’ll now ask the Government for more time, continue those conversations and see whether we can find a route through this. Our aim remains an up-to-date Local Plan that protects Southend, provides the homes our residents need and has enough support to actually be delivered.”