Monitoring the South Norfolk Local Plan

Five year housing land supply position

Due to the changes in the December 2024 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the Greater Norwich authorities are not currently claiming a five-Year housing land supply. Previously, under the provisions of the December 2023 NPPF, Greater Norwich had the protection of a local plan adopted in March 2024 which demonstrated a 5.77-Year Supply. As such, a detailed 1 April 2024 land supply position was not produced. As a consequence of not having a supply figure, the requirements of NPPF paragraph 11d), known as the ‘tilted balance’, will be applied to planning applications for housing.

Since the adoption of the Greater Norwich Local Plan (GNLP) in March 2024, the supply of new deliverable housing sites has continued to be challenging, with a significant contributory factor being the availability of measures to address Nutrient Neutrality. The GNLP projected delivery of 12,592 homes between 1st April 2023 and 31st March 2028; however, this supply has diminished as completed units have not been replaced by new deliverable permissions, and the delivery of some sites has been pushed back to later years.

Under NPPF paragraph 78, housing land supply in Greater Norwich would currently be tested against the GNLP annualised requirement, adjusted for past over delivery since 1 April 2018, plus a 5% buffer. This equates to 2,034 dwellings/year. Over coming years Greater Norwich’s housing requirement will increase because of the new NPPF. From 1st July 2026 the Greater Norwich authorities will need to add a 20% buffer, which would currently make the requirement 2,324 dwellings/year, and for the purposes of reviewing the GNLP, the Local Housing Need (LHN) is currently 2,590 dwellings/year.

The Greater Norwich authorities are continuing to monitor housing completions during 2024/25, and work is commencing on a new 5-year housing supply statement to cover the period 1st April 2025 to 31st March 2030. This work will require landowners, agents, and developers to agree forecasts for all major residential sites; and this ongoing support in forecasting housing land supply is appreciated by the Greater Norwich authorities. It is anticipated that an up-to-date land supply position will be published in July 2025.

Authority monitoring reports

The authority monitoring report is a requirement set out in Section 113 of the Localism Act 2011.

The authority monitoring report (formerly the annual monitoring report, or AMR) is a regular check of the performance of existing policies.

From 2010/11 the AMR has been produced jointly with Broadland District Council, Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council as part of the Greater Norwich Growth Board and monitors policies from the Joint Core Strategy. The JCS has now been superseded by the Greater Norwich Local Plan (GNLP) which was adopted in March 2024. In future monitoring years the AMR will monitor the policies in the GNLP.

The various AMRs covering South Norfolk are available to download.

Residential land availability reports

The Residential Land Availability (RLA) report provides information on the availability of residential land in South Norfolk and is published on a financial year basis. The RLA gives an indication of the implementation of housing allocations as well as monitoring the level of new planning permissions granted, the number of housing units completed and the amount of land with outstanding planning permission for residential development. The RLA also identifies whether sites are brownfield/greenfield, windfall/allocation and includes information on density and numbers of bedrooms.

To view the most recent RLA report please contact us using the details below. Download previous versions of the RLA.