4. About Cheshire West and Chester

Cheshire West and Chester covers 941 square kilometres. It includes the historic city of Chester, larger towns, villages, small rural settlements and extensive countryside. 

The main settlements in the borough are Chester, Ellesmere Port, Northwich and Winsford. Much of the borough lies within the North Cheshire Green Belt, which covers about 42% of our area. There are many smaller settlements across the rural area. 

Homes and land

The Government’s standard method currently indicates that the Local Plan should provide for 1,930 new homes each year. Over a 10-year plan period this would be 19,300 homes (or 28,950 homes over 15 years). The current Local Plan requirement is 1,100 homes a year.

This figure does not itself take account of local constraints such as protected environmental and heritage areas, the Green Belt, flood risk or the capacity of roads, schools and GP surgeries.

Current monitoring information shows undeveloped planning permissions for about 4,125 homes. Our first-stage land availability work identifies previously developed sites without planning permission that may have capacity for about 5,300 homes.

Following the publication of new government guidance, we will be following the new site selection process, as we develop the new local plan.

We plan to run a targeted call for sites later in 2026.

Housing, employment and retail evidence

• The Housing Needs Assessment considers the size, type and tenure of homes needed. It identifies housing affordability problems in parts of the borough, particularly for young people and people on lower incomes.
• The Economic Needs Assessment identifies a need to plan for about 149 hectares of employment land over 15 years. This is mainly for industrial, warehousing and distribution uses. It says at least 40% should be on large sites of 5 to 25 hectares or more.
• The Retail Study did not identify a need for additional retail floorspace.

We will also consider other relevant strategies, including the Borough Plan 2024-2028, the Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026-2031 and take account of the Cheshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy.  

All of the information that supports this scoping consultation can be found in the baseline and evidence base sections of our website.