Scoping Report

Ends on 14th October 2026 (34 days remaining)

4. What do we want this new Local Plan to achieve?

An initial draft vision

4.1 We have started to think about what we want this new local plan to achieve by 2046. A local plan can have a big influence on what happens to a place, through its use to inform planning decision making, investment decisions and the plans and strategies of other services and organisations.

4.2 We have set this out as an initial overall draft vision. It continues the approach set out in the emerging Rutland Local Plan 2021 - 2041, whilst also responding to the new challenges and opportunities that we have identified.

4.3The initial draft vision is as follows:

Over the next 20 years, the administrative area of Rutland County will strengthen its position as a distinctive and niche deeply rural but relatively accessible location within the East Midlands. It will be recognised for its high quality, healthy, safe and quintessentially characterful rural living and working environments and for its opportunities for businesses seeking ready access to the national strategic road network in the east (A1) and south of the County (A47). Its high end and general outdoor rural and nature-based tourism and recreation offer will develop to be a cornerstone of the rural economy and countryside diversification, particularly around Rutland Water and the rolling countryside in the west of the County. The day-to-day choices of residents and businesses and the developments, infrastructure provision and land use change that take place will contribute to a reduction in overall carbon emissions, and wider net zero ambitions.

There will be a step change in the amount of new housing provided across the county. Housing will be located where it can best support existing or new provision of shops and services that benefit everybody, and it will have been provided so it respects and protects the most valued aspects of local places. There will be significant amounts of new affordable housing and more housing attractive to young families, bringing more vitality and viability to the County.

Existing local employment will be complemented by a range of new and expanded local businesses, both in traditional and emerging new sectors that make use of AI and robotics, reflecting technological advances, and broadening the County’s economic base. These will be hosted at existing and new employment locations that offer the best combination of market advantage, supporting local sustainability and contributing to wider strategic economic objectives.

Improvements to the physical, social and utilities infrastructure will be delivered in step with the new development that generated the need for it, with solutions designed to minimise their whole life carbon emissions and those of its users.

The historic market towns of Oakham and Uppingham will continue to thrive and be promoted as the focus for community and cultural life in the County, complemented by new neighbourhoods offering new homes, shops, services and employment opportunities with their own sense of place that responds to modern imperatives, such as resilience, safety and comfort in the face of a warmer climate and more extreme weather events.

Outside of these main towns and new neighbourhoods, there will be some significant changes to some settlements, especially where this can help places to remain viable, by either helping to retain existing community shops, services and thriving support networks, or supporting the provision of new ones. This will only have been done in a way that respects and protects the most valued elements of the local landscape, townscape, historic and environmental assets.

The opportunities that arose from the closure of the MOD site at St. George’s Barracks will have provided a spatial focus for rural regeneration efforts, using the brownfield land on the sites for development that supports the aims and objectives included in this vision.

4.4 We still have more work to do on the vision. We need to draw out plan objectives from it and make it more locally specific, particularly around where new development should go, and the relationship of Rutland to its wider area. It may also be amended to reflect new information, including your feedback. You will have the opportunity to comment on an updated version of the vision in the next main consultation on the new local plan in Spring 2027.

Question 4.1 Does this initial vision cover what you expect it to cover in an appropriate way? Do you have other thoughts about how Rutland should develop over the next 20 years? Comment

Priorities

4.5 Arising from this initial vision and what we know already (Chapter 3), we think that the key priorities that the new local plan should address are as follows:

Environment

  1. Climate change mitigation, adaption and resilience
  2. Nature recovery and resilience
  3. Safeguarding the best of our natural and historic assets and the quintessential rural and historic character of Rutland.

Meeting Housing and Employment Needs

  1. Ensuring there is enough land and premises for local employment to meet local needs.
  2. Providing enough new housing to meet overall identified needs.
  3. Providing accommodation to meet specific needs, such as affordable housing, accommodation for older people and people with disabilities, and sites for Gypsies, Travellers and Travelling Showpeople.
  4. Meeting the needs of an older population, whilst taking steps to improve the attractiveness and accessibility of Rutland to working age families and households with children.
  5. Seeking positive re-use and regeneration of vacant and underused greenfield and brownfield sites, such as former defence sites;
  6. Considering what the opportunities for diversifying and expanding the local economy could be, arising from direct access in the county to the A1 and the A47 strategic road network
  7. Providing and Sustaining Local Shops and Services and Community and Physical Infrastructure
  8. Helping to maintain and improve the vitality and viability of Oakham and Uppingham town centres.
  9. Maintaining and improving access to open spaces, green infrastructure and community facilities, shops and services for physical and mental well-being.

Good New Development

  1. Ensuring that there is sufficient and timely provision of new physical and community infrastructure to support new development.
  2. Providing clear and robust guidance on our continued high expectations for the quality of design of new developments and places.

Balancing environmental, community and economic objectives

  1. Addressing rurality through appropriate policy approaches, such as for rural exceptions housing, safeguarding community facilities, supporting sustainable transport connectivity, and rural tourism and other agricultural diversification.
  2. Finding the appropriate balance of environmental, water resource, recreation and tourism objectives for Rutland Water and Eyebrook Reservoir.

Question 4.2 Do you agree with this initial list of priorities? Do you think there any that should be removed, or any new ones that should be added? Comment

Measuring Success

4.6 We must identify up to ten measurable outcomes to accompany the vision. These should be the most important and measurable things that we want the new plan to achieve, including what the new plan must achieve to comply with national planning policy. By monitoring these aspects every year, we will be able to check that our new local plan is having its intended effects.

4.7 Our initial draft outcomes come from the draft vision and are set out below. More work will be needed to make them more specific and measurable, to check that they are feasible to collect, and to take account of feedback from this consultation.

  1. New jobs created.
  2. Affordability of housing (lower quartile house price: income ratio).
  3. More young families with school age children, to balance an ageing population.
  4. New homes completed.
  5. Accessible local services and open spaces
  6. Increase in rural tourism businesses (measure needed)
  7. Number of planning decisions (including appeals) that protect designated historic, archaeological and environmental assets and landscapes assets
  8. Biodiversity Net Gain secured through new development – habitat units created and enhanced
  9. Carbon emissions, broken down into travel, housing, industry, farming and forestry, etc.
  10. Healthy life expectancy (as a proxy for health)

Question 4.3 Are these the most appropriate things we should plan to measure? Are there other things we should include in the list? Comment

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