What is the City Plan and why are we reviewing it?
Our City Plan provides our vision and framework for how long-term housing, commercial and infrastructure growth will be delivered in Westminster. The policies within the plan cover a range of topics including housing, sustainability, heritage, transport, the visitor economy and employment.
These policies are used to determine whether new developments including new housing and commercial floorspace are suitable to go ahead. The current City Plan was adopted in April 2021 and we are now refocussing our ambitions to build more affordable homes and prioritise the retrofitting of existing buildings. To address these priorities, we have now launched a partial review of our adopted City Plan.
The new and revised policies will together contribute to our vision for making Westminster a fairer and more inclusive city, where residents benefit from the opportunities new developments bring, and workers and visitors from all backgrounds feel welcome and safe.
What is happening now?
We have recently completed our six-week consultation, known as a ‘Regulation 18 consultation’, and we are now considering all of the representations made.
The review is focussed on those matter that we feel most urgently need attention. The partial City Plan review consultation will therefore concentrate on:
Affordable Housing
- We want to strengthen our existing affordable housing policy to maximise the provision of genuinely affordable housing for those most in housing need.
- Our consultation proposes to change policies that will require developers to help us meet increasing demand for more genuinely affordable housing.
- Policies to build more genuinely affordable homes will help local businesses recruit staff that have a genuine choice to live close to where they work.
Retrofitting
- Our new retrofit-first policy will prioritise the retrofit and refurbishment of existing buildings to meet future needs over unnecessary demolition and redevelopment, reducing the impact of development on climate change.
- We want to partner with landowners and developers to help them demonstrate their commitment to doing all that we can together to respond to the climate emergency.
- We know there are challenges to constructing and retrofitting more sustainable buildings. Therefore, we want to work more closely with architects and construction experts to find the right solutions.
Site allocations
- Westminster is a wonderful place to live, and we want existing and future residents to feel they can build a future here. Our consultation will help transform underused sites by allocating them in the Plan to potentially provide more affordable homes, job opportunities and support infrastructure.
- Site Allocations in the City Plan will present greater certainty to developers and landowners on what type of proposals are likely to be granted planning permission.
- Site Allocations can identify site-specific matters that will influence new designs – such as important buildings on site to retain or the need to provide new areas of open space.
- We have been gathering evidence to support these allocations including a call for sites which took place in January-May 2022 and as part of the Regulation 18 consultation on the partial City Plan review which took place October – November 2022.
How can I read more?
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Document
Regulation 18 Statement
PDF, 151.81 KB, 3 pages
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Document
Westminster Local Development Scheme
PDF, 379.36 KB, 5 pages
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Document
IIA Scoping Paper
PDF, 635.37 KB, 10 pages
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How can I get involved?
To stay up to date on our City Plan review progress, you can subscribe to our email database and receive alerts. Sign up to receive emails.
What happens next?
The next stage of formal consultation will be known as Regulation 19. This stage will likely take place towards the end of 2023 and we will publish draft policies and site allocations and will ask for comments on if they are effective, robust and legally sound. This will be the last stage before the City Plan is then submitted to the Secretary of State for public examination by an independent planning inspector.