I warned during the recent by-election that this was coming. On the 9th February, South Norfolk, Broadland and Norwich Councils opened what is known as a “Call for Sites”. This is literally an invite to landowners & developers to suggest sites across the region for yet more house-building.

The fruits of this are likely to be unpopular, so why would they do this? Conspiracy theories are always popular but the answer is more prosaic.

In simplified terms, council districts have house-building targets. Local councils are then obliged to formulate “local plans” - literally allocating housing numbers to sites to ensure house-building for years ahead. A lot of effort goes into this, in effect trying to find the least awful way of achieving the Government target. In exchange for having an up-to-date plan, local councils are then able to reject the even worse planning applications that come in from developers for other sites.

The three councils adopted an updated plan in 2024 to build about 2,000 homes every year until 2038. The Labour Government however has decided to increase the target further. Now they want the 3 councils to build 2,590 every year until 2044-5.

That is more than 23,000 extra homes they need to find sites for - in addition to the ones already planned for.

Until the councils have revised their “local plans” once again, their power to reject ‘hostile’ planning applications gets seriously curtailed.

For Wymondham, the risks are two-fold.

The first is that planners pick on Wymondham again, and allocate a load more sites here. The second is that until there is a new plan in place to build these fairly obscene numbers, Wymondham is prone to hostile planning applications.

One site I’m keen to stop is the Gladman’s proposal for 600 homes between Norwich Common and the A11.

There is both the risk that they will apply to be a site in the local plan, and a risk that in the meantime they will bring forward a formal planning application - that the Government’s planning inspector will then approve even if the Council try to refuse it.

Where to build instead is an interesting question. One answer might be for Norwich to start adding a storey to every building. Another is to concentrate development on new towns & “garden villages”. The theory here is that it provides a ready source to fund infrastructure - though it doesn’t feel great if you live in that hamlet or just care about the countryside.

Whatever the answer, it needs to include “not Wymondham”. The Town’s population has already increased by half in the last 25 years. And there is no more space, unless the planners want to trash the rural outlook or start physically joining us to Hethersett and beyond.

This is why I’m telling the council leadership and planners to leave Wymondham out of things. There will have to be a plan to build somewhere if we want to resist hostile planning applications. Just not here.