The Council’s Solihull Local Plan is part of the ‘development plan’ for the Borough (which also includes the KDBH Neighbourhood Plan). The development plan is a collection of official documents that set out planning policies aimed at guiding future development. This would include things like the amount and location of housing and jobs; but also, the protection of wildlife sites and conservation areas. The Local Plan deals with all strategic matters as well as those of a non-strategic nature. The Neighbourhood Plan covers non-strategic (local) matters.
Decisions on planning applications have to be made in accordance with the Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plan unless what are known as ‘material considerations’ suggest otherwise. Where there is a conflict between the policies on local matters in the respective plans, the Neighbourhood Plan (being the most recent) has precedence.
The current Local Plan dates from 2013. After that, the Council spent several years working on a review. The draft of a replacement plan was published in October 2020 and, subsequently, was the subject of a public examination by two Inspectors from the Planning Inspectorate. After an adjournment of the hearings, the Inspectors came to the view that not enough housing land in the Borough had been identified. They suggested further allocations including land in the Green Belt. This suggestion was not accepted by the Council. The proposed replacement plan was withdrawn shortly afterwards.
The Council has started work on a new version of a replacement Local Plan (the Local Plan Review). In December 2024, promoters of land were invited to register sites which might be suitable for development (the ‘Call for Sites’ exercise). More recently, a re-appraisal of the Green Belt has been carried out although the results have not yet been released.
In February and March 2026, the Council asked for views on a consultation on ‘Issues and Options’. This was the first of two formal stages in the preparation of the Local Plan Review. A second formal consultation, into the version of the Plan that will be sent to the Planning Inspectorate for examination, is likely to be held later in the year, possibly in September. By the end of the year, all the representations and the draft Plan will be sent to the Inspectorate with a view to examination in 2027.