North Somerset planning: 24,495 homes, hearings from 9 Nov

North Somerset has spent six years and four drafts trying to get a Local Plan adopted. The current attempt, the Local Plan 2041, went to the Planning Inspectorate on 22 May 2026, and on 3 August the programme officer confirmed when it will be argued in public: four weeks of hearings starting the week of 9 November 2026, with a reserve week in January.

That plan decides where roughly 24,500 homes go across Weston-super-Mare, Nailsea, Backwell, Portishead, Clevedon, Pill and the villages, and it takes land out of the Bristol Green Belt to do it. This page sets out what is in it, where the numbers come from, and what happens next.

One thing to get straight first, because it sends people to the wrong website every day: North Somerset Council is a unitary authority and is not part of Somerset Council. Planning applications here go to North Somerset, and Somerset’s Local Plan has nothing to do with this district.

Where the plan is now

Three inspectors have been appointed, which is a signal in itself: most district plans get one. They are H Hockenhull, E Brownless and D Board, and the third was added on 3 July 2026. The examination is run by programme officers Helen Wilson and Yvonne Parker, and every document, question and response is published on the examination website. Anyone who commented at the Reg 19 stage can ask to speak at the hearings.

The housing number, and where it came from

Policy SP8 of the submitted plan requires land for a minimum of 23,700 homes in North Somerset between 2026 and 2041, which works out at 1,580 a year. That figure is not the council’s choice. It is the output of the government’s standard method for calculating housing need, applied to this district.

The plan then identifies enough sites to supply 24,495 homes, a little above the minimum. That is the number most often quoted locally, and it is the supply side rather than the requirement.

For scale: the previous version of this plan, published in 2023 for a period ending in 2039, was overtaken when the government revised the standard method. The new calculation added thousands of homes to the target and forced the council to start again with a 2026 to 2041 period. That is why there have been drafts labelled 2038, 2039, 2040 and now 2041.

Where the homes go

Weston-super-Mare takes just under a third of the total on its own, 7,730 homes. Of those, 6,660 are on allocated sites in and around the town, including the Weston Villages developments that are already building out, and a further 1,070 are expected on small windfall plots.

The two genuinely new places on the map are the ones to watch:

• Wolvershill, north of Banwell: 3,300 homes. A strategic development set out in Policy LP1, close to Weston-super-Mare and immediately behind the new bypass.
• Woodspring, south west of Bristol: 3,500 homes. A single comprehensively masterplanned area under Policy LP2. Because it is a new location, no windfall allowance is added to it.

Nailsea and Backwell are treated as one strategic growth location with 3,728 homes between them, including a 228-home small-site windfall allowance. Pill and Easton-in-Gordano get 1,100 across five allocated sites. Portishead has 562 homes on allocations plus a broad location at Wyndham Way capable of up to 785 more, and a 254-home windfall forecast. Clevedon, hemmed in by the coast and the Green Belt, takes the least of any town: 258 on allocations plus about 330 on windfall sites.

The Green Belt question

This is what the hearings will spend most time on. The plan releases twelve sites from the Green Belt for housing, amounting to more than 6,600 homes, including the strategic allocations at Woodspring, Nailsea and Backwell, and Pill and Easton-in-Gordano. The council describes it, accurately, as a significant release.

Its argument is the sequential one national policy asks for: previously developed land first, then grey belt, then other Green Belt locations. It also proposes to create a new area of Green Belt south of Nailsea and west of Backwell, to stop the two settlements spreading further into open countryside once the allocated land is built.

Separately, land at Bristol Airport comes out of the Green Belt, to reflect the permission granted on appeal in 2022 to raise the airport’s cap from 10 to 12 million passengers a year. The plan records that the airport carried almost 10.5 million passengers in 2024, which means the existing cap is close to being hit.

What is actually being built

Allocations are one thing, completions are another, and North Somerset is not building at anything like the rate the plan requires.

In the year to 31 March 2026 the council recorded 817 homes completed, and a net gain of 794 once conversions, changes of use and demolitions are taken off. The plan needs 1,580 a year. Last year’s net figure was almost exactly half of it.

The five-year land supply position has the same shape. At April 2026 the council identified 8,371 deliverable homes for the period to March 2031, which it calculates as 5.05 years against a requirement of 1,659 a year (the standard method figure plus a 5% buffer). That clears the bar by about two weeks’ worth of housing.

Building at half the required rate, in a district where prices rose 6.4% last year, is the whole argument in one line. Our house prices page has the numbers on the demand side.

There is a large caveat and the council states it plainly: 2,593 of those 8,371 homes are on emerging allocations, sites that only exist in a plan still under examination. Because of that, the council says the position “will not be relied upon for the purposes of decision-making”. In practice, if you are arguing a planning appeal in North Somerset this year, the council is not leaning on a five-year supply.

The Banwell bypass

The single biggest piece of infrastructure tied to this growth is the Banwell bypass, which unlocks the Wolvershill allocation. It was originally costed at £66m and funded by Homes England through the Housing Infrastructure Fund. After the original contractor withdrew and inflation took hold, the figure is now around £105m, with Galliford Try building it and the council contributing towards the gap.

Construction is well under way, with piling, bridge abutments, culverts and mammal passages all in progress. The council’s working target is to have the road open in early 2027.

How to follow or object to a specific application

• Search current applications on the council’s Public Access planning register. You can search by address, postcode or application number, and view the documents and case officer.
• Weekly lists of newly validated and recently decided applications are on the same system. Note that the current in-progress week often shows nothing until the council has validated that week’s batch, so check the previous week too.
• Comment periods are usually 21 days from the site notice or advertisement. Comments have to be about planning matters, so loss of a private view or effect on property value carry no weight, while highway safety, overlooking, noise, design and heritage do.
• Local Plan hearings are a separate process. If you commented at the Reg 19 stage you can ask the programme officers to speak, at info@programmeofficers.co.uk.

Frequently asked questions

How many new homes are planned in North Somerset?

The Local Plan 2041 requires land for a minimum of 23,700 homes between 2026 and 2041, or 1,580 a year, and identifies sites for 24,495. The requirement comes from the government’s standard method, not from the council.

When will the North Somerset Local Plan be adopted?

Not before 2027. The plan was submitted on 22 May 2026, hearings run across four weeks from 9 November 2026, and a reserve week is held for January 2027. Adoption follows the inspectors’ report, and only if they find the plan sound.

Which parts of North Somerset get the most new housing?

Weston-super-Mare, with 7,730 homes, about a third of the total. Then Nailsea and Backwell (3,728), the new Woodspring development south west of Bristol (3,500) and Wolvershill north of Banwell (3,300). Clevedon takes the fewest of the towns at 588.

Is North Somerset building on the Green Belt?

Yes. Twelve sites totalling more than 6,600 homes are proposed for release from the Green Belt, including Woodspring, Nailsea and Backwell, and Pill. The plan also proposes new Green Belt south of Nailsea and west of Backwell to contain further spread.

Does North Somerset have a five-year housing land supply?

On paper, 5.05 years as at April 2026. But the council says that position depends on allocations in a plan still being examined and will not be relied on for decision-making, so in practice it is not a defence at appeal yet.

Is North Somerset part of Somerset Council for planning?

No. North Somerset Council has been a separate unitary authority since 1996. Its planning register, Local Plan and policies are entirely its own.

Sources

• North Somerset Local Plan 2041 examination (programme officers) for the submission date, inspectors and hearing weeks, confirmed 3 August 2026.
• Local Plan 2041 Pre-submission Plan (Reg 19) for Policy SP8, the distribution table, the Green Belt releases and the Bristol Airport policy.
• Submission Local Plan 2041 (Reg 22), April 2026 for the submission documents.
• Residential Land Survey and Housing Land Supply Position Report, April 2026 for completions and the 5.05-year supply.
• Banwell bypass project pages for the scheme’s cost, contractor and progress.
• North Somerset Public Access planning register for individual applications.

Figures are taken from the submitted plan and may change through the examination. Always check the council’s own pages before acting on them.