Westmorland and Furness Local Plan

A new Local Plan for Westmorland and Furness

We are starting work on a new Local Plan for Westmorland and Furness (excluding the National Parks). When this is adopted, it will replace all the existing Local Plans that were adopted by the former Councils.

The Local Plan will:

set out how much new development (e.g. homes and employment sites) is needed to support our communities
make sure new development is built in the right places and in a way which is best for people and the environment
allocate sites for new housing and other development
protect some areas and green spaces from development
include policies that are used to decide planning applications
plan for development relating to minerals and waste

We kicked off the process with an ‘early conversation’ with our communities and stakeholders over summer 2024. We’re at the very early stages of plan making and no decisions have been made. It is important that we get everyone involved to identify what kind of place we want to live and work in and how we want to see Westmorland and Furness change over the next 20 years.

As part of the early conversation we also asked people to identify land or sites that are available to be developed for housing, employment, minerals or waste purposes.

Recent Consultations

Early Conversation

Consultation closed 9 September 2024.

We wanted to hear your thoughts about where you live, work and visit within Westmorland and Furness, and how you would like to see our area change and develop over the next 20 years.

For more information please visit our Local Plan Consultations Page

Design Code

Consultation closed 9 September 2024.

We are preparing a Design Code to set out the design standards we expect from new development. We asked for your views and preferences on local design, the quality of recent development and the different characteristics of places across Westmorland and Furness in our consultation in July / August 2024. The responses are being analysed and will be used to inform the Design Code.

For more information please visit our Design Code Project Page

Call for Sites - Housing, Employment, Minerals and Waste

Consultation closed 30 September 2024.

We are currently in the process of going through all the sites submitted to the Council as part of the Call for Sites which closed on 30 September 2024 to assess the accuracy of the data provided. We expect to publish details of the sites submitted in early January 2025 although this will only be for information purposes and will not contain any assessment or conclusion on the suitability of any sites for inclusion within the Local Plan.