A welter of Government initiatives covering (a) changes to the national planning system and (b) local government reorganisation could have a major impact on our lives in Normandy.

National Planning Changes

Following last year’s public consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the revised version of the NPPF was published on 12 December 2024 and amended on 7 February 2025. From our perspective, the main changes include a significant increase in local housing targets and, with the introduction of the concept of ‘Grey Belt’, a more permissive approach to building on Green Belt land. Guildford Borough’s target goes up from 562 to 1102 per year, while 82% of its land is Green Belt. Further Green Belt Guidance issued on 27 February shows just how determined the Government is to increase the amount of development in the Green Belt. The latter could hardly have been written in a worse way for Normandy (see below).

On the plus side, the Government has launched the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which among other things aims to speed up the process for considering planning applications, and to introduce a more strategic approach to planning across the larger areas of local government that will flow from separate plans for greater devolution in England (see below). The vehicle for the latter will be a Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) for each area. 

English Devolution

On 16 December the Government published its proposals for greater devolution to local authorities in England, including the merging of District and County Councils to form new Unitary Authorities and, ultimately, the creation of Strategic Mayoral Authorities covering a group of Unitaries, akin to those already in place in e.g. London and Manchester. Surrey is a pilot area for this new approach, and it is already happening here, at pace (see below). The final bit of the jigsaw will be a Communities Bill, that will define the relationship between Parish and Town Councils and the new Unitaries. The detail of this will be important, as the move to larger authorities must not result in the weakening of the local voice.

Local Impact

In Surrey, proposals are well-advanced for the merging of the 11 District Councils (including Guildford Borough Council - GBC) and Surrey County Council into two or three Unitary Authorities. On 19 March GBC Councillors voted for the latter option, which would merge Woking, Guildford, and Waverley areas into a new Unitary for West or South-West Surrey. Final proposals must be submitted to the Government by 9 May, with Shadow Unitary Authorities forming a year later and taking over in May 2027; a new ‘Surrey’ (it may include other areas) Strategic Authority could be created either at the same time or a year after that.

While all this change is happening, GBC is also in the process of updating its Local Plan, adopted in 2019. An updated Plan must ensure an adequate housing supply over the subsequent five-year period, which will now need to reflect GBC’s much higher targets. On 27 February the Councillors of the GBC Executive adopted a Local Development Scheme (LDS), as required by the revised NPPF. This maps out a timetable for agreeing a new Plan, including opportunities for public consultation. This is currently estimated to conclude by mid-2029, although how this will be affected by the local government reorganisation running in parallel remains unclear. 

The Local Plan and Normandy

Throughout March, residents have observed a flurry of surveying activity in and around the area bounded by Glaziers Lane in the east, Westwood Lane in the west, the railway line to the south, and Guildford Road in the north. This area includes the notorious Site A46 for 1100 houses that was included in earlier versions of the Local Plan, was very strongly resisted by local residents, and was eventually removed. From everything written above it is easy to see how this site could come back into the frame for a revised Local Plan, especially as the Green Belt Guidance referred to above specifically excludes the merging of villages – as opposed to towns – such as Normandy and Flexford as a disqualifier for building on the ‘Grey Belt’. Not to mention the emphasis placed on ‘sustainable locations’; this is not defined, but the example usually given is those that are close to railway stations.

Indeed, it could come forward even sooner than that. In parallel, GBC has issued its annual call for sites “to inform its annual update of the Guildford Land Availability Assessment”. Our reading of the new NPPF and the Green Belt Guidance is that developers do not have to wait for new Local Plans to be approved before they can get planning permission in the ‘Grey Belt’. The prospect of an imminent planning application for 1100 new houses in Normandy must therefore be taken seriously.

The Green Belt in Normandy and Wanborough is already vulnerable. The continuing eyesore at Wanborough Fields, the unauthorised mobile homes to the left of the road to Ash, the burning of mixed waste at the bottom of Elmgrove Lane, all illustrate the challenges faced by GBC in ensuring that regulations are complied with. (For updates on Wanborough Fields, we strongly recommend visiting the Wanborough Parish Council website, where you can sign up for their newsletter or visit their enforcement page to read the latest information, plus details of where to report waste-burning or other unlawful activity.) It would be nice to think that the move to Unitary Authorities will result in local planning authorities that have more resources and are able to operate more effectively, but in the current financial and fiscal environment that may be wishful thinking.

This means that as a community, and at a time of great change that is designed to achieve outcomes that few would quarrel with (more, and more affordable, homes for more people; more effective local services; improved local government accountability), it is really important that we keep our eye on the ball, take advantage of opportunities to be involved through public consultation, and stand ready to defend the things that are precious to us.