Westmorland and Furness Local Plan

Stakeholders and Statutory Consultees Document and Survey

A new Local Plan for Westmorland and Furness

We are working on a new Local Plan for Westmorland and Furness (excluding the National Parks). When this is adopted, it will replace all the existing Local Plans that were adopted by the former Councils.

The Local Plan will:

set out how much new development (e.g. homes and employment sites) is needed to support our communities
make sure new development is built in the right places and in a way which is best for people and the environment
allocate sites for new housing and other development
protect some areas and green spaces from development
include policies that are used to decide planning applications
plan for development relating to minerals and waste

We kicked off the process with an ‘early conversation’ with our communities and stakeholders in 2024. It is important that we get everyone involved to identify what kind of place we want to live and work in and how we want to see Westmorland and Furness change over the next 20 years.

We have run a number of 'Call for Sites', where we asked people to identify land or sites that are available to be developed for housing, employment, minerals or waste purposes. More information on this can be found here.

Notice to Commence Plan Making

New legislation published in March 2026 updates the way in which Local Plans should be prepared, beginning with a Notice of Intention to start the Local Plan and a Scoping Consultation.

Westmorland & Furness Council gave notice of intention to commence plan making and set out a timetable for the production of the Westmorland & Furness Local Plan on 30 June 2026.

The Westmorland and Furness Local Plan will cover the administrative area of Westmorland and Furness with the exception of the parts within the Lake District & Yorkshire Dales National Parks.

The Westmorland & Furness Local Plan will encompass the requirements of a minerals and waste plan.

The timetable will be regularly updated as necessary and published on this page.

The notice and timetable are available to download in full below:

Westmorland & Furness Local Plan Open Data

The Council publishes planning policy data in open, machine-readable formats. We must follow the approved data standard to publish our Local Plan timetable so that we meet the requirements of the Planning Data (England) Regulations 2026. This data is provided under the Open Government Licence.

Scoping Consultation 1st July to 11th August 2026

This new consultation seeks views on what the Local Plan could address, what it should aim to achieve and how people would like to be involved and kept informed of progress. It builds on the feedback given in our Early Conversation in 2024.

We will be asking for views on the following themes based on the feedback we’ve already gathered:

Health & Communities
Place
Economy
Climate & Nature
Travel & Infrastructure
Housing

We would like your views on whether you agree with these themes, and whether there are any areas we may have missed. Please complete either of the surveys at the top of this page to share your thoughts.

At this stage we don't know how much land might be developed over the plan period up until 2045, although we do know that national targets mean we will be looking to identify areas of significant growth for housing. Therefore we are opening the Call for Sites again to allow anyone who has any suggestions for sites that should be considered when we are developing the Local Plan to put them forward. We can then look at all potential options and choose the most suitable sites where they are most needed.

Call for Sites - Submit a site

Supporting documents and guidance

The Scoping Consultation will run from 1st July to 11th August 2026

Focus groups

We will be holding a series of focus group meetings targeting engagement with groups we have not yet heard from. If you or your group would like to be involved in a focus group session please get in touch at localplan@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk

Members of the team will be attending a range of events around the district in July & August handing out information on the consultation and links to the survey.