City Plan: have your say on how Brighton & Hove grows over the next 15 years
The City Plan will guide development across Brighton & Hove for the next 15 years (Image: Brighton & Hove City Council)
Brighton & Hove is asking residents, businesses and community groups to help shape how the city grows over the next 15 years, as it opens a new round of consultation on the plan that will guide almost every decision about development, housing and green space.
The council has launched a Scoping Consultation on its new City Plan, the document that sets the framework of planning policies steering development across the city for around the next 15 years. It runs from 14 July to 7 September 2026, and everyone who lives, works or runs an organisation in the city is invited to have their say.
Once adopted, the new plan will replace the two documents currently in force: City Plan Part One, adopted in 2016, and City Plan Part Two, adopted in 2022. It is now a decade since Part One was agreed, and the council says much has changed both nationally and in the city since then.
What the City Plan actually decides
Deputy Council Leader Jacob Taylor called it "one of the most important documents the council produces." It guides decisions on new homes, transport and infrastructure, shapes how green spaces and heritage are protected, and sets out how much commercial space the city needs to support business and jobs, as well as local amenities such as bus routes, doctors, schools and safer streets.
Building on last year's response
Many residents will remember the previous consultation, which launched in November 2024 and asked which Key Issues a new City Plan should address. It drew a strong response – more than 700 replies, including 200 from young people through the council's first ever youth survey. Those responses have helped shape the council's understanding of what matters most to people living in the city, and every comment already submitted remains relevant and will still be considered.
Because this stage builds on that earlier work rather than repeating it, the council is taking a deliberately "high level" approach. If you took part last time and have more to add, they want to hear from you again. If you didn't, this is a fresh chance to have your say.
Valley Gardens, Brighton, seen from above (Image: Brighton & Hove City Council)
Why the rules have changed
Since the last consultation, the government has introduced a new national plan-making system that the council must now follow. It sets out a clearer, more consistent way for councils to decide what development is needed, where it should go, and how local places should be protected and improved. The government is also due to publish an updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which will set national planning rules for England covering many matters that used to sit in local plans.
The practical effect is that the new City Plan must be simpler, shorter and prepared more quickly, focused on a vision and spatial strategy for the city, site allocations and key local issues. It also means some issues raised last time can no longer be covered where national policy now deals with them – the scoping document explains which. The way the plan is prepared has changed too: the process must begin with an early engagement stage, followed by a 30-month period to prepare the plan itself.
What this consultation is asking
Like last year's Key Issues stage, the scoping consultation is your opportunity to help set the direction of the plan. The council wants views on four things in particular.
Alongside the main consultation, the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) Scoping Report is also open for comment, and a further "Call for Sites" invites people to put forward potential housing, employment, retail or other development sites for consideration. To give certainty to residents, businesses and developers, the plan will be prepared for the city's existing administrative boundary, excluding the South Downs National Park – in line with government guidance that the forthcoming Local Government Reorganisation is not a reason to delay plan-making.
How to take part
Cllr Taylor urged "residents, businesses and community groups to take this opportunity to share their views with us and help us plan for a thriving, sustainable, safe and inclusive city we can all be proud of."
You can read the consultation documents and submit your views through the links below.