North Yorkshire Council likely to halt Selby local plan as housing need trebles in wider county

The North Yorkshire Council executive will recommend to full council that the Selby local plan be put on hold in light of new requirements under the National Planning Policy Framework.

The updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), introduced in December 2024, means that local authorities must calculate housing need using a new method, resulting in increased housing targets in line with the government’s ambition to build 1.5 million homes in the next five years.

Since the NPPF was renewed, the calculated housing need in North Yorkshire has trebled from 1,300 homes a year to 4,077.

This has prompted North Yorkshire Council to consider scrapping the Selby local plan to “focus resources on delivering the North Yorkshire local plan”, according to council documents.

Under the former NPPF the emerging local plan for the market town had assumed an annual target of 386 new homes, but the revised calculations have increased that to between 483 and 561 homes.

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In a council meeting last week, councillor Mark Crane, the executive member for open for business, said that the impact of the updated NPPF and its targets for new homes, economic growth and associated infrastructure means that much more work would be needed to get the Selby local plan approved.

He said that an additional £180,000 would be needed in order to find and approve new sites for housing, and that the council’s budget would be better directed towards the development of a plan for the whole county.