Local plans

East Suffolk is currently covered by the East Suffolk Council Suffolk Coastal Local Plan and the East Suffolk Council Waveney Local Plan. These cover the former Suffolk Coastal and Waveney districts outside of the Broads.

Adoption documents, inspector’s reports and previous stages

Local Plan evidence base

Previous local plans

Neighbourhood Plans, once made, also form part of the development plan for the district. The Broads Authority Local Plan covers the Broads Authority area in the north of the district. Development is also guided by the  National Planning Policy Framework and Planning Practice Guidance. Ongoing joint working in relation to cross-boundary matters takes place through the Ipswich Strategic Planning Area board.

Policies map

The geographic policies in the plan are shown on the policies map.

Local Plan Five Year Review Assessments

Local planning authorities must review their Local Plans before they reach five years old, to consider whether they need to be updated.

The review of the Waveney Local Plan was first carried out in March 2024 and concluded that the plan remained effective and that it was not necessary to update the plan at that time. Since the publication of that review the National Planning Policy Framework was updated with a new Standard Method resulting in a significant uplift in housing need. Because of this change an addendum to the Waveney Local Plan Review Assessment was produced which solely considers policies relating to housing need. This addendum concluded that an update to the Local Plan would be required.

 

The Suffolk Coastal Local Plan became five years old on 23 September 2025. The Suffolk Coastal Local Plan Review Assessment concludes that, principally due to the significant increase in the housing need figure for East Suffolk, the plan needs to be updated.

 

The expected timetable for the Local Plan update is published in our Local Development Scheme.