Elmbridge Local Plan: £1m to start a plan it cannot finish

Elmbridge Borough Council will be asked on Wednesday to start writing a Local Plan that runs to August 2029, more than two years after the council itself stops existing.

It has no choice. New government regulations require every local planning authority to formally begin a new Local Plan by 31 December 2026, and Elmbridge remains the planning authority for the borough until 1 April 2027, when it becomes part of East Surrey Council.

Cabinet meets at 7pm on Wednesday 16 September at the Civic Centre, Esher. The plan has a name already: the Elmbridge Local Plan 2039.

The date that matters to residents is 4 November

The first chance to have a say is the scoping consultation. Under the draft timetable it runs from 4 November to 9 December 2026, and the council says details of how to take part will be published closer to the launch.

That stage is the one Elmbridge itself will run. Here is the full draft timetable, with the abolition date marked:

Only the first three stages fall inside the life of the council starting the work. Everything after April 2027 belongs to East Surrey Council, which the report says will decide for itself whether to carry the emerging plan forward at all.

What it costs

The council agreed a Local Plan budget in February 2026. The report puts the money currently available at £1,051,970, for specialist technical studies, statutory consultations, legal advice, the Planning Inspectorate’s Gateway checks and the examination in public.

Two other figures sit alongside it:

• a £70,000 grant from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government towards the Green Belt evidence
• a £100,000 ceiling on what the council may spend, imposed by the Section 24 Notice that governs its spending during reorganisation

The evidence is being bought now, before the council goes. The Retail and Leisure Needs Assessment and the Employment Land Assessment are done. Three more were commissioned before the Section 24 Notice took effect in July 2026:

• a Local Housing Needs Assessment
• a Green Belt Assessment
• a Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment

All three are expected to be finished by 31 March 2027, the last day of Elmbridge Borough Council’s existence.

Why Elmbridge has been without a plan

The borough’s planning policies are the Core Strategy of 2011 and the Development Management Plan of 2015. The previous attempt at a new Local Plan was withdrawn, and Cabinet agreed in February 2025 to update the two old documents instead, under regulations that have since been replaced.

The practical effect shows up in the borough’s housing land supply. Elmbridge can demonstrate one year of deliverable housing land against a five-year requirement, as set out on our Elmbridge planning news page.

The rules have changed more than the timetable suggests

The regulations that took effect on 25 March 2026 rebuild the system, not just the schedule. The report sets out what is different:

• plans must be shorter and simpler, produced within a prescribed 30-month period after a four-month lead-in
• three Gateway checks replace the old drafting-and-hope approach, with the second and third assessed by the Planning Inspectorate before a plan reaches examination
• a Spatial Development Strategy covering the whole of Surrey will set the overarching growth strategy and apportion housing need, a return to the regional planning abolished in 2010
• National Decision Making Policies will form part of the National Planning Policy Framework and take immediate precedence where local policy conflicts with them
• draft national policy tells councils not to duplicate, restate or modify national policies, which the report says will reduce both the plan’s content and its scope to react to local circumstances

What is left for the local plan is the spatial strategy, the site allocations and their infrastructure requirements, developer contributions, and design. The vision may have a maximum of ten measurable outcomes. Allocations must cover at least ten years from adoption, which is where 2039 comes from.

One more recommendation is easy to miss. Cabinet is asked to cancel the council’s Statement of Community Involvement, last updated in November 2024, as it applies to planning policy engagement. That document is the council’s published promise about how it consults residents on planning policy.

What it means for you

• If you want a say while Elmbridge is still the one asking, the window is 4 November to 9 December 2026. After that the consultations belong to East Surrey Council.
• The Green Belt evidence commissioned now will shape which land is looked at later, and it is due to be finished the day before the council disappears.
• Housing numbers for the borough are likely to be set by the Surrey-wide strategy rather than by Elmbridge, so the local argument shifts from how many homes to where they go.
• Planning applications decided in the meantime still run on the 2011 and 2015 policies, and on national policy where the two conflict. Separately, the rules on which applications reach a committee at all change on 31 October, which we covered in the 15-objection rule ends 31 October.

Cabinet meetings are open to the public and are webcast.

Sources

• Elmbridge Borough Council, Cabinet, 16 September 2026, item 6: Elmbridge Local Plan 2039, notice of commencement of plan-making and Local Plan timetable for the 2026 regulations, the 31 December deadline, the 30-month period and Gateway checks, the £1,051,970 budget, the £70,000 grant, the £100,000 Section 24 limit, the evidence base and its 31 March 2027 completion date, the Spatial Development Strategy, the National Decision Making Policies and the recommendation to cancel the Statement of Community Involvement.
• Appendix 1, draft Local Plan timetable for every date in the table above.
• Elmbridge Borough Council, Cabinet agenda, 16 September 2026 for the meeting date, time and item order.
• Elmbridge Borough Council news, 8 September 2026: Elmbridge to begin work on new Local Plan for the council’s public account and the portfolio holder’s comments.