Spatial Development Strategy
The Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) will be a comprehensive plan to guide how the West of England will grow in the future.
It will consider how we build the right homes in the right places, what roads, schools and hospitals might be needed, how to support local jobs and businesses, and how to protect nature and prepare for climate change. This plan will help shape more detailed Local Plans later on, and will be used in future when decisions are made about new projects.
In Spring 2026, the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority in partnership with North Somerset will work with central government to lay regulations to establish a Strategic Planning Board (SPB) in line with the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. The SPB will bring together the Mayor and leaders of the four councils to take forward work on the SDS and will act as the statutory decision-making group.
We need to work together to tackle the housing crisis, deliver growth, and protect our planet. I know that leaders across the West share those priorities. We need to build the right homes in the right places, with the services and infrastructure that people need and deserve.
Provisional timetable
SDS initiation and scoping, including:
- Commissioning evidence base
- Establishing working groups and wider governance
Initial stakeholder engagement
Initial public engagement on a vision for the SDS.
Publication of draft SDS and public consultation.
Examination in public, following submission to the Planning Inspectorate.
Adoption, monitoring, and review.
Guiding principles for developing a West of England SDS
The Growth Strategy will be, in line with government guidance, the ‘guiding star’ for any Spatial Development Strategy and other plans and strategies. The SDS should build on the work of the Local Plans already developed by North Somerset and the regional authority’s constituent authorities, Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, and South Gloucestershire.
The West of England Combined Authority Committee have agreed to joint working principles and aims for developing the Spatial Development Strategy. These are:
- Co-development and equality of participation. All unitary authorities participate as equal partners with respect for different priorities and relationships. Political engagement will be sought at all levels. Formal voting will take place on a majority basis.
- Timing and momentum. Meeting the Government’s ambitious timeline for SDS delivery this Parliament will require working at pace, balancing the ambition of allowing sufficient space and time for internal discussions with the need for agile decision making.
- Strategic. The SDS will focus on addressing strategic / regional challenges, leaving local matters to be determined at the local level.
- Evidence and infrastructure-led. The SDS must be based on a proportionate, yet robust, evidence base, with all policies and proposals justified and capable of withstanding challenge at examination. Where possible, we will utilise evidence from UA local plans, rather than commissioning it new.
- Integration. The SDS must be fully integrated with and support the delivery of key national, regional and local priorities and programmes, taking strategic direction from the Growth Strategy.
Alongside this, the following aims for preparing the SDS were also agreed:
- A shared plan for delivering the Growth Strategy. A partnership approach is necessary to address the region’s housing availability and affordability challenges and break us out of the cycle of under-delivery.
- An ambitious and robust business case for investing in the region. The SDS must demonstrate how co-ordinated delivery can unlock the transformational infrastructure that the region needs to thrive. This must provide additionality to and not replicate the content of Local Plans produced by the local authorities.
- An evolving, realistic delivery programme that facilitates the vision taking shape. The SDS must help address the region’s challenges to delivery on the ground, including through providing a deliverable pipeline of intervention.
Next steps
Regulations to support the Planning and Infrastructure Act (2025) and further guidance are expected from central government in relation to preparing the SDS over the next 6 months. In line with the Planning Advisory Service’s Top Tips for SDS Readiness, early work is commencing on building the foundations for the SDS and scoping the role the SDS ought to have.
Stay up to date
More details on the SDS are set to come before the Mayor and council leaders’ joint meeting in October.
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