The Horsham Local Plan examination hearings concluded on Thursday 22nd October 2026, with independent Planning Inspector Jonathan Bore giving a preliminary indication that important elements of the emerging plan are sound. Horsham District Council reported the development on Friday 23rd October, after hearings focused on the strategy for housing growth and proposed development sites.
That is a significant step for West Sussex, but it is not an adopted Local Plan or a final Inspector’s finding. A limited further consultation on technical main modifications is expected before the Inspector issues his formal report, anticipated early in 2027.
For landowners, residents and developers, I would treat this as a strong signal about the direction of the emerging plan, not as a planning permission or a reason to assume that every allocation has survived examination unchanged. What happens to the remaining modifications still matters.
Horsham Local Plan: what did the Inspector indicate?
The council says the Inspector’s preliminary conclusion was favourable on the proposed number of homes, the level of affordable housing, development management policies and the distribution of growth around the district. Those are central building blocks of a Local Plan, so an encouraging indication on them is more consequential than simply reaching the end of a hearing programme.
The word preliminary is crucial. The Inspector has not yet published the final examination report confirming which policies and allocations meet the legal and soundness tests, or setting out precisely what additional changes are required. A council press release is evidence of what was said at the closing hearing, not a substitute for his final written conclusions.
In practical terms, the Horsham Local Plan has cleared another procedural stage. The remaining work includes consulting on a small number of additional or revised main modifications, considering the representations and reaching a final conclusion. No new planning policy becomes part of the statutory development plan simply because oral hearings have finished.
Why the revised housing strategy matters
The plan covers 2023 to 2040 and was submitted for examination in July 2024. Following earlier examination difficulties, Inspector Jonathan Bore took over in early 2026 and examined key matters in April before returning to housing sites and spatial strategy in October. The latest hearings are therefore a continuation of a substantial examination, not the beginning of a new Local Plan exercise.
Proposed main modifications put forward during the summer increased the housing provision from 13,212 to at least 18,712 dwellings across the plan period, an uplift of 5,500 homes. These are proposed plan figures, not approved housing schemes and not a prediction that all dwellings will be completed. The earlier Planning Geek report on the examination hearings explains that proposed change and the affected hearing programme in more detail.
For the Horsham Local Plan, an Inspector accepting the broad distribution of growth would be particularly important to the council’s approach to allocating land for housing, employment and related infrastructure. However, the precise wording, boundaries and delivery assumptions of particular policies and sites still need to be judged against the examination documents and any final modifications.
Housing requirement is only one part of the planning picture. School capacity, highways, water infrastructure, biodiversity, landscape constraints and the availability of suitable land may still affect how a proposed allocation is framed and how any later planning application is determined.
What the October hearings considered
According to the council’s 23 October announcement, most issues had already been tested through written submissions or earlier hearings. The latest sessions therefore concentrated on strategic sites and some additional sites advanced to help meet the greater housing requirement.
The official examination updates identify matters involving Kilnwood Vale, Ashington, Storrington and Henfield, as well as a Horsham allocation that was to be handled in writing. The fact that a matter was discussed or dealt with in writing does not establish that an Inspector has approved a specific planning application.
A six-week consultation on proposed main modifications ran from 13 July until 24 August 2026. Residents, parish councils, developers and other participants were able to make representations relevant to those changes. The October hearing sessions then provided a further opportunity for the Inspector to test matters requiring oral examination.
Further consultation and the final report
The council expects a short additional technical consultation on a limited number of amended or additional main modifications. Its announcement did not set the consultation dates or publish the final text, so nobody should treat that opportunity as already open or assume which specific changes it will cover.
After considering the consultation responses, Inspector Bore is expected to produce his final report early in the new year. That report, rather than the oral signal, will establish whether the plan meets the applicable examination tests and which modifications are necessary. The council would then need to complete its adoption process.
Horsham District Council has expressed confidence that adoption can follow in early 2027. The Horsham Local Plan timetable is nevertheless dependent on the remaining consultation, the Inspector’s report and the council’s subsequent decisions. A projected date is not an achieved adoption.
What this means for current planning applications
Until the new plan is adopted, the existing statutory development plan remains the starting point for planning decisions, subject to relevant material considerations. Emerging policies can carry weight in appropriate circumstances, but their weight is not decided by press coverage or by whether examination hearings have been completed.
The advanced stage of the Horsham Local Plan is relevant when examining proposals on land identified for development. Yet the extent of outstanding objections, the form of any modifications and consistency with national policy may influence how much weight an emerging allocation deserves. A site appearing in a proposed allocation does not, by itself, create a planning permission.
Equally, a developer cannot assume that a council will refuse every scheme on unallocated land simply because its emerging plan has received an encouraging signal. Decision-makers still have to apply the statutory framework, relevant development plan policies and the particular circumstances of each application.
I would check the exact site policy, the current adopted policies, the housing land supply position and any outstanding examination correspondence before advising a client to rely on the Inspector’s preliminary comments. The same caution applies to parties considering representations or land promotion.
What to watch next in the Horsham Local Plan
The immediate task is to monitor the council’s Local Plan pages and examination library updates for the promised technical consultation, the list of main modifications and the Inspector’s formal conclusions. It is too early to say that every disputed allocation or policy is settled.
For communities, the next consultation should be approached on its stated terms. A consultation confined to a few main modifications is not normally a fresh invitation to restart the entire strategy debate. Relevant, site-specific evidence about the proposed changes will be more useful than repeating objections unrelated to the points being tested.
For landowners and developers, the Horsham Local Plan announcement makes the eventual adopted policy framework look closer, but it does not change a property’s legal status overnight. Check whether a particular proposal is an allocation, an aspiration in supporting evidence or a separate application for permission.
The central distinction is straightforward: the hearings have ended and the Inspector has signalled provisional soundness, while further consultation, his report and formal adoption remain to come. Each of those stages deserves its own update rather than being collapsed into a premature claim that the Local Plan has been approved.
0 Comments