Northumberland Conservatives are delivering on the promises we made. Since forming a council administration one year ago we have enacted a solid plan to create a county that works for everyone.

One of our key pledges was to remove Labour’s plan for 26,000 new houses in Northumberland, and within the first few months we did just that.

We firmly believed that 26,000 new houses were far too many and official government data has backed us on this. We also believe that Northumberland’s greenbelt should be protected, not built upon. Our new plan will protect the greenbelt, and make sure it prioritises jobs, not houses.

The new ‘Local Plan’ will become a framework for future development in the county. It will set out the county’s position on housebuilding and the strategy for economic growth. The plan will be in place until 2036 and will set out where we will focus our investment and will show where more houses are needed to enable growth.

We also want to make this ‘the people’s plan’, with residents’ ideas contributing to it from the grassroots rather than the top down approach which led to the previous plan.

Earlier this year we spoke to residents about where should be made available for development, and where they felt there was a need for further infrastructure. We have delivered a draft plan that puts jobs before houses, which is expected to create over 15,000 jobs over the plan period.

We have collated all of the feedback from around the county into one document.

There will be drop-in sessions for residents to share their views in all major towns and conurbations in the county. A detailed programme of these events is available here.

You can also find out more details about the plan or submit your views online by clicking here.