Local Plan for Derby (LPD)

We are producing a new Local Plan for Derby

The Local Plan sets out our planning policies for the city, which are used to shape new developments and guide decisions on where, how much, and what kind of development will be delivered over the next 15 years, up to around 2040.

The Council is working on preparing a new Local Plan. Once adopted this will replace the current Local Plan which is made up of the Derby City Local Plan - Core Strategy (2017)(External link) and the Saved Policies of the City of Derby Local Plan Review (2006)(External link).

We are working on a new Plan, as we are required to review our Local Plan every five years, but also because a number of the key things affecting the city have changed and new challenges have emerged. We need a new Plan to help the city address these challenges.

More information about the Local Plan, including the challenges it will need to address and the timetable for production is set out in the document called ‘About the Local Plan’.

What have we done so far?

Since beginning work on the new Plan, we have been gathering the evidence we need to identify the issues it should address and how we can do this. This includes identifying the type of housing that is needed in the city, how much and what type of land we need for employment uses to help build the economy and capturing information on what type of natural assets we have in the city and how the Local Plan can protect and increase our natural resources.

We have also been looking at the land and buildings that have been submitted to us through the Call for Sites(External link). The Call for Sites, is an ongoing process, where people can promote land and buildings they would like to be included in the next Local Plan.

Other useful links are provided on the right of this page, including a recent Position Paper (October 2024) that explains Derby's limited capacity to provide new housing within the city boundary.

Survey

Thank you to everyone who took the time to complete our Local Plan Priorities survey. With over 550 people sending us their thoughts we certainly had a lot of diverse views to read.

It came as no surprise that certain issues came to the forefront of the survey. Housing, the protection of the Green Belt and our Green Wedges, public transport and community safety were all seen as important issues.

People strongly agreed that new housing should be built at a higher density and focused in both the city centre and on previously developed land as this would help to protect greenfield and Green Belt land; indeed, it was felt that our Green Wedges should be protected from inappropriate development. It was also felt that the provision of affordable and specialist housing as well as care homes and extra care living were important issues to be addressed.

However, respondents felt that necessary infrastructure such as schools, GP surgeries and public transport needed to be provided to support all new housing development.

Responding to the impacts of climate change was a key thread running through many responses. A lot of respondents thought that all new buildings should be built to a higher energy efficiency standard and that consideration should be given to the reuse of both buildings and the recycling of materials. Energy efficient homes and the incorporation of low carbon technology, such as solar panels, was widely supported.

Our open spaces were also considered to be valuable for a multitude of reasons and should be protected. In addition to promoting health and wellbeing, their importance for nature conservation and biodiversity was recognised.

The drive for high quality design in all new developments across the city was favored with respondents supporting the publication of design guidance for various subjects including for shopfronts, residential extensions, commercial development, and renewable energy installations.

We have published a summary of the responses we received. We will use the responses to help inform the development of the new Local Plan as we move forward.

How to keep in touch

If you are not already on our Local Plan consultation list and want to be kept updated on the new Local Plan's progress, please email the team(External link) using the address at the top of this page.