Comments on the district's revised Local Plan close at 11.59am on Monday 24 August. The Call for Sites for the next plan closes at 5pm on Tuesday.

The public has until 11.59am on Monday 24 August to comment on changes that raise the Horsham district’s housing target by 5,500 homes and add a new 3,200-home settlement at Adversane. After that, comments will not be accepted at all (Horsham District Council consultation page).

A second planning deadline follows a day later. The council’s Call for Sites for the next Local Plan, Horsham District 2045, closes at 5pm on Tuesday 25 August (council consultation page).

Bar chart comparing strategic housing allocations in the submitted Horsham Local Plan with those proposed in the Main Modifications: a new 3,200-home settlement at Adversane, Land west of Ifield unchanged at 3,000, Land east of Billingshurst rising from 650 to 1,000, Land north west of Southwater rising from 1,000 to 1,044, and 500 more homes through further intensification at North Horsham. The district requirement rises from 13,212 to 18,712 homes and the build rate from 777 to 1,100 a year.
Graphic by Horsham Daily.
Share this chartFacebookWhatsAppX

What actually changed

The Main Modifications are 264 numbered changes to the plan the council submitted for examination on 26 July 2024. They exist because the Inspector examining that plan, Jonathan Bore, wrote to the council on 5 May 2026 with interim conclusions after April’s hearings on housing. The council’s Cabinet agreed the suggested amendments on 6 July 2026.

The headline numbers in the council’s own schedule:

  • The housing requirement rises from 13,212 to at least 18,712 homes over the plan period to 2040.
  • The average build rate rises from 777 to 1,100 homes a year.
  • The identified supply rises from 13,212 to 20,915 homes.

The strategic allocations change like this:

  • Land at Adversane (Kingswood): a new allocation of 3,200 homes, of which at least 1,425 fall inside the plan period. The site sits at the junction of the B2133 and Adversane Lane, next to the hamlet of Adversane, and is described as a standalone new community rather than an extension of it.
  • Land east of Billingshurst: 650 rising to 1,000 homes.
  • Land north west of Southwater: 1,000 rising to 1,044 homes.
  • North Horsham: a further 500 homes through intensification.
  • Land west of Ifield, Crawley: 3,000 homes, unchanged.

The schedule also replaces the delivery trajectory with a stepped one. Its proposed requirement is to mirror actual delivery in years 1 to 3, then 499 homes in years 4 and 5, 1,100 a year in years 6 to 10, and 1,601 a year in years 11 to 17 (Schedule of Suggested Main Modifications).

The council gives one reason for the stepped shape that is worth reading twice. It says the legacy of water neutrality, which held up permissions, means fewer completions are expected in the short to medium term while a pipeline of permissions is rebuilt. Water neutrality itself no longer applies in the district; Natural England withdrew its position statement on 31 October 2025.

The four rules that get responses thrown out

This is not an ordinary consultation, and the council is blunt about the limits.

  • Comment only on the modifications in the schedule. Representations on any other part of the plan, or on the plan as a whole, will not be considered.
  • Do not resubmit what you said last time. Comments made at the earlier Regulation 19 stage have already gone to the Inspector.
  • Do not send the same response twice by different routes, for example online and by email.
  • Late is late. The council states that any comments received outside the period will not be accepted.

There is one wrinkle in the council’s own published times. Its consultation listing gives the closing time as 11.59am on Monday 24 August, while the strategic planning portal that hosts the documents gives 12 noon (consultation portal). The two are a minute apart, but the practical advice is the same: treat late Monday morning as the cut-off and do not leave it to the last hour.

Responses go through the online form on the consultation document. If you cannot use the form, the council takes representations at localplan@horsham.gov.uk. All comments that meet the published standards are put online and passed to the Inspector.

The second deadline: the plan after this one

The Call for Sites is a different exercise, and it is aimed mainly at landowners, agents and developers. It asks for land that could accommodate development in the district, excluding the South Downs National Park, for these uses:

  • residential, including market, affordable, older people’s, Gypsy and Traveller and travelling showpeople, custom and self-build
  • employment, including office, light industrial, storage and distribution
  • retail, leisure and community facilities
  • renewable energy or green infrastructure
  • biodiversity net gain offsetting and agriculture

It has been open since 30 June and closes at 5pm on Tuesday 25 August. One detail matters to anyone who has been through this before: sites submitted to the council previously must be submitted again, because the exercise feeds a fresh site assessment.

The companion Scoping Consultation on what the 2045 plan should cover has already closed. It ran from 30 June to 5pm on 28 July 2026.

What it means for you

If you live near any of the five strategic sites, this week is the last point at which the current plan’s numbers can be argued about before the Inspector rules. Adversane, Billingshurst, Southwater, North Horsham and Ifield are the places where the change lands hardest.

If you do want to respond, three practical things:

  • Read the Schedule first and find the modification number you want to address. The council publishes a “Main Modifications in Policy Order” document to help you navigate the list.
  • Be specific about soundness. The Inspector is testing whether the modifications make the plan sound and legally compliant, not whether people like them.
  • Give yourself Monday morning, not Monday lunchtime. The form closes on the minute.

The council’s strategic planning team takes questions on 01403 215398 or at strategic.planning@horsham.gov.uk.

One more district consultation is still open and runs much longer. The Community Governance Review Stage 2 closes at 11.59pm on 7 September 2026, and that is the one covering parish boundaries and the proposed merger of Horsham Town Council and North Horsham Parish Council. We set out both options ward by ward in our piece on the Horsham town council merger.

Background on how the plan reached this point, including what the modifications mean site by site, is on our Horsham planning news page. To check what is being decided on your own street in the meantime, see Horsham planning applications.

Sources