New Local Plan - Issues & Options (Regulation 18)

Objective 1: Delivering the right amount and type of housing to meet need

• Establishing need and ensuring housing choice (size, tenure, type) and location to meet the needs of the population. This includes:
  • Affordable housing across all tenures
  • Accessible and adaptable housing to support people throughout all the stages of life
  • Sheltered accommodation for people with additional needs
  • Care homes
  • Self-build and custom build plots
  • Gypsy and Traveller needs
  • Travelling show-people
  • First Homes

• Making an appropriate contribution to meeting the justified unmet housing needs of other authorities within the Leicester and Leicestershire housing market area.

Objective 2: Protecting and delivering enough business and employment land to meet need and support economic aspirations for growth

• Resisting the loss of existing employment land and supporting the delivery of new employment land to encourage inward investment, increased employment diversity and the growth of existing businesses.
• Supporting the continued use and re-use as well as intensification, where appropriate, of our existing employment land.
• Ensuring support of existing industries within the District while also supporting emerging sectors.
• Acknowledging the high level of rural business within the District, their different needs and supporting rural diversification.
• Supporting our tourism and hospitality offers both within our centres and in more rural locations across the District. Specialising in local and sustainable tourism focused on the attractive countryside and settlements across the District. Developing new and expanded markets for this type of tourism.

Objective 3: Ensuring a spatial strategy which supports sustainable development

• Maintaining and enhancing the quality of life offered in Harborough District which attracts people to live, work and play here.
• Ensuring new employment and housing are located in sustainable locations.

Objective 4: Protecting and enhancing our villages and towns as centres of the communities they serve

• Maintaining and improving the resilience, vitality and viability of our centres, acknowledging the ever evolving and changing role of town and other urban, sub-urban and rural centres.
• Supporting all our different scales of centres by protecting sustainable local services as well as encouraging the provision of additional sustainable local services and facilities where possible and appropriate.

Objective 5: Securing sustainable, high-quality places through design-led development

• Ensuring a strong emphasis on quality urban design, physical place-making and shaping across all scales of development to positively respond to the new Office for Place and the Government's 'Building Beautiful' initiative.
• Ensuring that all new development is high quality, sustainable and enhances the character of the District.
• Using design to ensure new development is integrated and connected to the wider place.
• Securing excellent design at all scales of development from initial concept and master planning to detailed design of individual schemes.
• Ensuring increased emphasis on context and place-making/shaping when planning new developments through the Local Plan and policies that support and enable their delivery. Place increased emphasis on local Design Coding and site-specific development briefs and master plans to ensure local effect is given to District wide design coding.
• Supporting the development of new spaces that are safe, social and inclusive for all ages, life stages and accessibility levels.
• Using design to support health, well-being and active lifestyles as well as to prevent anti-social behaviour.

Objective 6: Supporting the Council's climate emergency agenda

• Supporting an improvement in air quality across the District through encouraging and making provision for sustainable travel choices to reduce reliance on the private car.
• Requiring new development to minimise carbon emissions through building design and fabric as well as renewable technologies.
• Encouraging waste minimisation and waste prevention through the reuse (and recycling) of building materials.
• Supporting the delivery of charging points for electric modes of transport and emerging/alternative technologies.
• Supporting and encouraging retrofitting of existing buildings with renewable technologies and other appropriate interventions to help support the zero-carbon target.
• Supporting the provision of renewable energy in appropriate locations.
• Addressing the risk of flooding from all sources to both new development and established communities through the location of new development and ensuring green infrastructure includes sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) that are appropriate to the scale and location of each development.

Objective 7: The continued protection and enhancement of our heritage assets

• Ensuring the protection and enhancement of the District's conservation areas, listed buildings, parks and gardens and locally listed heritage assets.
• Ensuring new development within our conservation areas is of a high standard, reflecting their distinct character as well as preserving and enhancing the wider heritage assets.
• Supporting the continued use and re-use of our heritage assets to ensure their protection for this and future generations.

Objective 8: Improving open space and biodiversity

• Maximising and enhancing our open space to help tackle climate change, create flood risk resilience, reverse biodiversity decline and provide health and well-being for the immediate and wider community.
• Incorporating amenity greenspace, natural and semi-natural greenspace and parks and gardens into all scales of new development as appropriate.
• Ensuring all new green space is multi-functional with a range of habitats, rewilding some open spaces where appropriate and linkages to established habitats for tackling the biodiversity deficit in the District.
• Incorporating play space for all ages and abilities of children into all scales of new development as appropriate.

Objective 9: Developing options for sustainable infrastructure within the District

• Improving walking and cycling accessibility across the District where possible through provision of all-weather cycle and pedestrian links as part of new development and town centre improvements making places accessible and easy to move around places.
• Mitigating the highways and transportation impact of new development.
• Supporting the County Council in delivering sustainable public transport options to support new development.

Objective 10: Monitoring delivery and review of the Local Plan

• Ensuring that delivery of the Local Plan is effectively monitored and used to inform any future review of the Local Plan.