Horsham District Council has confirmed that the Horsham Local Plan will return to public examination hearings on 13th October 2026, placing revised housing numbers and site allocations back before Planning Inspector Jonathan Bore. The second round follows a fresh council announcement on 8th October, with hearings scheduled across two weeks.
The stakes have changed materially since the plan was submitted. Main modifications put forward in July would increase the minimum provision over 2023 to 2040 from 13,212 to 18,712 homes. That is 5,500 additional dwellings in the proposed plan, not 5,500 homes approved for construction.
For promoters, residents and practitioners, the October sessions are the next major test of where growth should be accommodated, whether the housing trajectory is credible and how policy and infrastructure requirements fit together. Adoption is still some way off: this is an examination of an emerging plan, not an adopted planning policy.
Land affected by an emerging Local Plan?
Why the Horsham Local Plan has returned to examination
Horsham submitted its Local Plan for 2023 to 2040 to the Planning Inspectorate in July 2024. The examination was subsequently paused and resumed with a different Inspector, Jonathan Bore, who examined housing requirements, housing supply, affordable housing and employment in April 2026. These earlier hearings are relevant because they prompted further council work rather than an immediate finding of soundness.
In his post-hearing correspondence dated 5th May, the Inspector identified matters for the Council to address. The resulting proposed main modifications include a revised housing requirement, additional allocations and revisions to development management policies. The Council agreed the proposed changes for consultation in July.
A six-week main-modifications consultation ran from 13th July to 24th August. The Inspector must consider the duly made representations and remaining soundness issues. The October sessions therefore do not reopen that closed public consultation; they test matters identified for further examination and enable listed participants to address the Inspector.
The Council’s 8th October announcement marks a procedural milestone. It is not an announcement that the revised allocations have been approved or that the plan has already been found sound.
Horsham Local Plan proposes 5,500 more homes
The publicly available main modification to Strategic Policy 37 (MM147) shows how substantial the proposed change is. The minimum provision would rise from at least 13,212 homes to at least 18,712 across the plan period. Expressed as a broad annual average, the figure moves from approximately 777 to 1,100 homes per year.
Those annual averages are not a guarantee that 1,100 dwellings will be finished each year. The modification includes a stepped delivery approach, reflecting the distinction between early years, when many larger sites are still being prepared, and later years, when more allocated land may become capable of delivery.
A higher overall figure has consequences far beyond housing headlines. It influences the land supply assumptions underpinning allocations, the scale and timing of associated infrastructure, and the evidence required on highways, utilities, schools, environmental constraints and deliverability. Developers interested in particular sites should inspect the actual modification schedule and the supporting evidence rather than treating an aggregate increase as a blanket release of land.
The proposed total remains under examination. The Council’s July consultation material should not be presented as the final adopted requirement, and the Inspector may still identify matters requiring further work.
October hearings: dates, participants and site allocations
The official hearing arrangements give a 10am start on Tuesday 13th October at the Council Chamber, Albery House, Springfield Road, Horsham. The listed dates are 13th to 15th October and 20th to 22nd October, with 16th and 23rd October shown as reserve dates. The Council says hearings will be livestreamed and recorded.
The hearing programme was updated again on 7th October to reflect participants. Those who have already requested oral participation should check the latest programme rather than rely on an older copy. The Council says only participants named in the hearing programme will be permitted to speak at those sessions.
The examination updates page identifies particular site matters moved within the timetable. The Kilnwood Vale matter was placed on the afternoon of 15th October, while specified allocations at Ashington, Storrington and Henfield were moved to 21st October. The HOR3 Horsham allocation is to be considered in writing rather than through an oral hearing.
These arrangements matter to planning agents and land promoters because a change in hearing date, participation list or the choice to deal with an issue in writing can affect how representations are presented. They are administrative arrangements, not conclusions on the planning merits of the sites.
Why the additional housing allocations matter
The Council’s earlier main-modifications announcement described one additional strategic site and a number of smaller sites as part of the attempt to meet revised requirements. It identified Adversane among the important choices, emphasising transport and school provision in discussing how proposed growth could be supported.
That does not make every proposed allocation deliverable or sustainable by definition. The examination must confront the underlying evidence and the representations submitted on the modifications. Matters such as the availability of suitable land, distribution of growth, infrastructure phasing and the realism of the housing trajectory can affect whether the plan meets the required soundness tests.
It is also important not to confuse an allocation in an emerging plan with a grant of planning permission. A landowner may benefit from a proposed allocation if it is ultimately adopted, but a subsequent scheme can still require its own application, assessments, obligations and decision under the applicable planning framework.
For those working on unallocated land, the hearings may clarify which parts of the spatial strategy remain contested. That does not create an automatic opportunity to submit entirely new proposals into an examination at this stage; the Inspector controls the hearing procedure and the outstanding questions.
Water neutrality, national policy and infrastructure
The Council has linked the need for additional plan work both to changes in national policy since its original submission and to the ending of the previous water-neutrality constraints in the area. Those factors are part of the background to the revised housing distribution, but they should not be treated as removing every environmental or infrastructure constraint affecting an individual site.
Water resources, ecological effects, transport capacity and infrastructure funding may remain material when proposals are assessed. The plan examination concerns whether a sound strategic framework has been assembled, not whether future housing schemes are exempt from project-level environmental safeguards or statutory procedures.
The new August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework also forms part of the wider policy backdrop. However, the appropriate national-policy and transitional provisions for this examination require care. Practitioners should not assume that each newer policy automatically replaces the examination’s transitional basis or retrospectively validates an allocation.
Planning Geek’s guide to Local Plan examinations explains the difference between the submitted document, main modifications, hearing matters and an Inspector’s final report. Those stages are separate and must be reported accurately.
What happens to planning applications before adoption?
Until adoption, the Horsham Local Plan remains an emerging plan. The statutory starting point for determining planning applications is the development plan in force, unless material considerations indicate otherwise. An emerging plan can be a material consideration, but the weight attached to its policies depends on factors including preparation stage, unresolved objections and consistency with relevant national policy.
That is why publicity around a revised housing target should not be read as an immediate change to a site’s planning status. A developer should review the adopted policies, the current five-year housing land supply position, the location and nature of any proposed allocation and the particular decision-making framework at the time of an application.
For a practical explanation of how such weight is assessed, see Planning Geek’s emerging Local Plans guide. The October hearings may strengthen or expose weaknesses in particular policies, but the result cannot be presumed before the Inspector reports.
The Council hopes adoption can follow in early 2027. That is an aspiration rather than a binding adoption date: the next steps depend on the Inspector’s conclusions, any further modifications required and completion of the statutory process.
What the Inspector and the Council will do next
Horsham District Council’s Cabinet Member for Planning and Infrastructure, Councillor Ruth Fletcher, said: “We welcome the start of the second stage of examination hearings.” The Council’s 8th October statement links the hearings to its ambition to return to plan-led development and anticipates adoption in early 2027.
Practitioners should now track the updated hearing programme, the examination library, any Inspector requests for further information and the eventual Inspector’s report. These are the sources that establish whether the proposed 18,712-home requirement and particular allocations remain unchanged, are modified further or are not accepted.
For landowners and promoters, the sensible next step is not to assume the growth strategy is settled, but to review the actual policy wording, supporting evidence and hearing documents for sites of interest. The short interval before 13th October makes the examination programme the immediate news hook.
The key facts are therefore straightforward: the October hearings have been scheduled; the Council proposes 5,500 more homes than in its earlier housing requirement; and the revised plan still has to complete examination before it can be adopted.
Related Planning Geek coverage
For comparison, see the Chelmsford Local Plan hearing timetable and Portsmouth Local Plan examination. These are separate authorities and stages, not precedents establishing Horsham’s soundness.
0 Comments