GNLP 2045
What the Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045 means for Costessey & Bowthorpe — and how to respond to the Scoping Consultation by 28 September 2026
The Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045
The Greater Norwich Local Plan 2045 — GNLP 2045 for short — is the new long-term development plan being prepared jointly by Norwich City Council, South Norfolk Council, Broadland District Council and Norfolk County Council. It will decide where new homes, jobs and infrastructure go across Greater Norwich between now and 2045.
Once adopted, the GNLP becomes the rulebook against which planning applications are judged. If a site is allocated for housing in the plan, refusing a matching planning application later becomes very difficult. That is why this plan matters so much for Costessey and Bowthorpe.
Why are the councils doing this when the current GNLP was only adopted recently?
The current adopted plan runs to 2038 and was adopted in March 2024. The councils are now starting a new plan — GNLP 2045 — because national planning rules and the official method for calculating housing need have changed. The new housing need figure for Greater Norwich is substantially higher than the figure used in the adopted plan (2,590 homes per year vs the original 1,920 homes per year - a 35% increase).
That matters here. Land that was dropped from the last review (like our site) can be put forward again.
What are Wain Estates trying to do?
It appears that Wain Estates have decided against submitting a speculative planning application, in favour of promoting the site and getting it included on the new GNLP.
If they can get the site allocated in GNLP 2045, a future planning application becomes far harder to stop.
What stage are we at now?
Current stage: Regulation 20 Scoping Consultation.
Dates: 17 August to 28 September 2026.
Portal: https://gnlp.oc2.uk
This stage asks for views on:
the plan’s vision and objectives
the growth strategy and settlement hierarchy
local policy themes (housing, infrastructure, environment, design)
what evidence the councils should collect
how people should be engaged later
This consultation does not allocate sites. The official documents say so in terms. There are no site-by-site questions at this stage.
A Call for Sites has already run (February–March and June–July 2026). Landowners and promoters submitted hundreds of parcels. Those submissions are on a register for information only. They have not been assessed or preferred. Note: Wain Estates have submitted the site as 25801.
Next stage that does deal with sites: Regulation 23 consultation, expected June–July 2027.
Later stages currently indicated by the authorities:
Gateway 1 self-assessment — 30 October 2026
Proposed plan (Regulation 27) — April–May 2028
Examination — October 2028 to March 2029
Adoption aimed at 30 April 2029
Why should we respond to the Scoping Consultation?
If you wait until 2027, the councils will already have decided:
how they will choose sites
what environmental evidence they will collect
whether the Yare valley and the edge of the allocated country park is treated as a place for more housing or as a constraint
A short response now is a holding marker. It does not stop Wain Estates promoting the land. But it does put on record that this cluster — New Road, Town House Road, Bawburgh Lakes, Charter Wood and the River Yare corridor — needs to be looked at as a whole.
We should be asking the authorities to:
treat the Yare valley between Bawburgh Lakes, Colney and Costessey as not appropriate for a further cluster of allocations
screen out, or treat as a significant constraint, sites adjoining or functionally linked to BAW2 and the Yare County Wildlife Sites
assess the cumulative impact of the New Road / Town House Road / Bawburgh Lakes promotions, not each field in isolation
collect the right evidence now: cluster mapping, updated flood and wastewater work, visitor-pressure and green-infrastructure standards, and habitat / nutrient-neutrality constraints
What other sites of interest are being put forward for GNLP 2045?
Wain Estates’ land is the dashed red outline on the map below: north of New Road, east of the A47, west of Chapel Break and south of the Hampdens (Call for Sites ref. 25801). It is not the only promotion in this part of the Yare valley.
The pink parcels are other sites submitted in the 2026 Call for Sites. None of them have been assessed or preferred. They are on the register for information only.
Look at the map and the pattern is obvious. Promoted land wraps around Bawburgh, sits on both sides of New Road, presses against Charter Wood and the lakes, and then continues south of the A47 towards Colney, the hospital and Little Melton. The adopted country park (BAW2) and the County Wildlife Sites sit in the middle of that cluster, not safely outside it.
Across Greater Norwich, 479 sites were submitted. Officers will assess them over the coming months. The public gets to comment on individual sites at Regulation 23 in June–July 2027. Until then, the risk is that each pink shape is judged on its own, and the cumulative effect on the Yare corridor is missed.
Official register (information only): https://gnlp.oc2.uk/document/90
Dashed red outline: Wain Estates / site 25801, north of New Road.
Pink: other Call for Sites promotions in the Bawburgh–Colney–Little Melton–Cringleford cluster.
How can we submit a response to the Scoping Consultation?
See this page.
Contact
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