Hastings Local Plan Draft Local Plan Preferred Options (Regulation 18)

1. Introduction Comment

1.1The Hastings Draft Local Plan sets out how our town will grow and change up to 2041. It provides the framework for delivering new homes, jobs, infrastructure, and community facilities, while protecting Hastings’ economy, iconic historic character and natural environment. The Plan is rooted in the council’s vision of achieving the renaissance of Hastings through sustainable development — stabilising finances, tackling housing and inequality, delivering climate resilience, and fostering civic pride through regeneration and community wealth-building.

1.2The Local Plan is not just about meeting government housing targets. It is about shaping Hastings in a way that reflects the town’s distinctive character, community spirit, and extraordinary setting. It seeks to balance growth with protection, ensuring that new development contributes positively to health, wellbeing, climate action, and social cohesion.

1.3Aligned with the Housing Strategy (2025–2030), policy throughout the Local Plan responds to acute housing pressures, rising deprivation, and the need for affordable, sustainable homes. It also sets out how Hastings can build a thriving, inclusive economy, improve transport and connectivity, and safeguard green spaces and heritage assets. Following the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the Council’s Corporate Plan, Housing Strategy and the policies in the Local Plan provide a roadmap for a safer, healthier, more sustainable, and more prosperous Hastings.

1.4The Local Plan once submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for examination effectively lives on until the successor authority adopts a replacement Local Plan as confirmed by the National Planning Policy Guidance^[i]:

As set out in Local Government (Structural Changes) (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2018, existing plans will remain in place for the areas set out in the plan. Plans that are being prepared, but not yet adopted, can also carry over and continue through to adoption in the new authority. However, the regulations state that new plans covering the whole of the new area must be adopted within 5 years of the reorganisation.

1.5Drafting and adopting a new Local Plan now is one of the best ways to secure a positive outcome for residents, businesses and community organisations for years to come, in the context of Local Government Reorganisation.

^[i] National Planning Practice Guidance, Paragraph: 074 Reference ID: 61-074-20190723

Revision date: 23 07 2019