We have responded to the letter published by Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning at the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) on 11 June 2026. The Minister’s letter challenged the Council’s draft Local Plan, in particular the fact it meets just 42% of the MHCLG’s defined Local Housing Need (LHN), and asked for evidence from the Council to support the Plan, with a deadline of Thursday 2 July 2026 for the Council’s response.

MHCLG say the Council’s Local Plan falls short by some 10,980 homes but the Council says the number it has in the Local Plan is the maximum that it is able to provide given the range of environmental and infrastructure Torbay faces, and lack of land to actually build on.

Councillor David Thomas, Leader of Torbay Council, said:“We took the view that 8,000 homes in the Plan was the maximum level of development that could be achieved within the Torbay’s physical, environmental and infrastructure capacity within the plan period.  Torbay is a heavily constrained coastal urban authority, and there are strong legal and planning reasons why the LHN figure cannot be met.  

“For example, the South Devon National Landscape (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) around Brixham covers around 11% of Torbay’s landmass. Torbay is a small area (around 63 sq. km), with around 58% urban areas, 13% cliffs and beaches, and 29% agricultural land. The South Hams Special Area of Conservation in Brixham and the Marine SAC are internationally important habitats. 

“In addition, there are interlinked water-cycle, flooding, coastal change management and sewerage issues. Nearly the whole of Torbay is a Critical Drainage Area.  Our consultants have advised us that the maximum number of homes Torbay can support in terms of water capacity over the next 20 years is 8,000 at current water usage levels. Even with these there are serious flooding, waste water management and climate change issues. With no additional flood resilience measures, climate change, urban creep is likely to lead to increased sewer flooding.

“A key principle of the Council’s draft Local Plan is that it proactively supports fast-tracking urban brownfield sites, mirroring the Government’s own commitment. One of the big projects the Council already has underway to help achieve this is the Hotels To Homes scheme which aims to bring disused buildings back into use to provide homes in the Bay.

“We completed a full and comprehensive public consultation on our Local Plan (Update) 2025 – 2026 between November 2025 and February 2026 and received more than 1,000 responses.

“Torbay Council has followed the Local Plan process and we are committed to delivering a sound plan in line with the National Planning Policy Framework. We believe that our Local Plan submission is in fact sound, positively prepared, justified, effective, and consistent with national policy.

“The Council is now working hard to bring forward an up-to-date Local Plan and will submit a Regulation 22 Plan by December 2026. To achieve this, the Council is progressing a Regulation 19 Publication Local Plan in August 2026, which will be considered by full Council on 23 July.”

Find out more about the Local Plan and read the correspondence on our Planning webpages.