The council is preparing a new, 15-year Local Plan that will provide:
- a positive vision for the future of the borough
- a framework for addressing housing and other development needs
- other economic, social and environmental priorities
It will contain locally distinctive strategic and non-strategic policies, as well as land or site allocations, while fostering high quality design and contributing to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.
Local Development Scheme
The council has produced a new Local Development Scheme (LDS) which sets out a timetable for the production of the New Local Plan over the period 2025 to 2028. It replaces the council’s previous LDS covering the period 2023 to 2026.
Progress
The Elmbridge Planning Policy team is in the process of updating the borough's Local Plan evidence base. Progress is set out in the table below:
| Document or action | Status |
| Local development scheme (LDS) | The new 2025 and 2028 LDS was published in March 2025. |
| New monitoring system | Project commenced in January 2025. A new planning data monitoring system has been designed and implemented. Data entry is complete and the new system will be fully up and running by the end of Quarter 3 2025. |
| Land availability assessment (LAA) | Project commenced in October 2024 with a call for sites which ran to the 31 December. Officers are currently working through site assessments. The initial LAA report is expected to be published in early 2026. |
| Green belt review | Elmbridge, along with Runnymede and Spelthorne, have been awarded government funding to procure a joint green belt review. Officers are currently working through procurement processes to appoint a suitably qualified consultant to undertake the project. |
| Employment land review (ELR) and retail need assessments | The council appointed Lichfields to produce an updated employment land review (ELR) and retail and leisure need assessment. The completed studies were issued to the council in March and April 2025 and were published at the start of June 2025. |
| Local housing need assessment (LHNA) | Project commenced at the end of May 2025. The council has published an Invitation to tender (ITT) to procure a suitably qualified consultant team to produce this element of the evidence base. |
| Gypsy and Travellers need assessment | Project commenced at the end of May 2025. The council has published an Invitation to tender (ITT) to procure a suitably qualified consultant team to produce this element of the evidence base. |
To view published evidence base documents referred to in the table above see Evidence.
Withdrawal of the Draft Elmbridge Local Plan 2037
Following the decision of Full Council on 26 February 2025 to withdraw the Draft Elmbridge Local Plan 2037 from examination, the council is starting the process of preparing a new Local Plan for the borough.
The council's letter to the Inspector and Statement of Withdrawal are available to view: