Consultation to build 47,000 new homes across West Northamptonshire given go-ahead

Councillors have nodded through an eight-week public consultation on the latest draft of the West Northamptonshire Local Plan, which will set out where thousands of homes will be built across the area in the coming years.

West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) unanimously approved the next stage of consultation on the Local Plan at a meeting on January 19. It comes as major changes to the makeup of the county’s residential and employment footprint have been proposed to meet the government’s higher housebuilding targets, which will require 2,500 homes to be built in West Northants each year.

Under the draft document, up to 47,000 new homes could be built over the plan period to 2043. This includes over 33,000 homes in Northampton, 4,670 homes in Daventry, 3,050 homes in Brackley and Towcester, and thousands more across many rural villages and towns.

Work on the preparation for the West Northants Local Plan began in 2019, but was delayed in 2024 to review government planning reforms, which saw an increase in housing need in the authority by around 20 per cent.

Graham Ferrie, who spoke at the meeting on behalf of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE), said the plan was “the most important document to pass through this council in many years”.

“It is vitally important we get this right as there are significant risks in getting it wrong,” he told the council chamber.

“Consultation is falling into disrepute throughout the UK. Planning departments are pressurised by Soviet Style centralised planning targets and poorly justified vanity projects.

“The public who object are derided as NIMBYs or blockers. People must not be insulted by public servants for caring about their living arrangements.

“You must listen to what the public want and show you have responded properly and in their interests.”

Concerns around the allocation of specific sites were also raised during the meeting, with Andy Millerchip, of Grange Park Parish Council, requesting that proposals for an 850-home allocation to a site between Grange Park and Quinton be removed to avoid the two communities being merged together.

The chair of Harlestone Parish Council, Sarah Stock, also previously asked for the council to reconsider the removal of the green wedge next to Harlestone Firs to make way for up to 100 homes, at a planning policy meeting earlier this month.

Both projects are still included in the draft and will be open to discussion, alongside all other proposals, throughout the consultation.

Cllr Thomas Manning, cabinet member for planning and communities, said that a number of public consultation activities have been lined up and that all responses will be “carefully considered”.

The authority has confirmed that the eight-week period of public consultation will launch later this month and will be publicised by the council via online and offline channels.