Wokingham Call for Sites Ends 1 Sep: 1,300 Homes a Year

Anyone can tell Wokingham Borough Council which patch of land should be built on next, and there are two weeks left to do it. The call for sites for the new Wokingham Borough Local Plan 2045 closes at 23:59 on Tuesday 1 September 2026 (council).

The number behind it is the one worth knowing. The council says the government’s housing need figure for the borough is “currently just over 1,300 new homes a year” (Engage Wokingham Borough). The plan now sitting with government inspectors requires 12,763 homes across its 2023 to 2040 period, which works out at about 750 a year (council local plan data, June 2026). The requirement has therefore not crept up. It has close to doubled.

What the council is asking for

The call for sites is not only for developers. The council’s own wording is that sites “can be suggested by anyone or any organisation, regardless of whether you’re the landowner or have a legal interest”.

It wants suggestions for:

• new housing, including market and affordable homes
• housing for older people
• gypsy and traveller and travelling showpeople pitches and plots
• employment land
• retail
• recreation
• community uses
• renewable energy generation

Two caveats sit in the small print. Suggesting a site “does not mean it will be selected as being suitable for development, allocated for development or given planning permission”. And the location and proposed use of every suggested site will be published on the council’s website, though personal details will not be. A site can be withdrawn later by writing to the council.

Why the number jumped

The council is blunt about the cause. National changes to planning rules require it to start a new plan now, “driven by the government’s aim to increase the number of new homes built nationally, from 300,000 a year to 370,000 a year”.

Set against the borough’s own recent plans, the new figure stands out:

Not all of that has to be found on new land. The council says sites already allocated under the Local Plan Update “will help meet a large proportion of our expected housing need in the new local plan”. It has not yet published a total requirement for the Local Plan 2045, whose plan period runs from 2026 to 2045.

How to suggest a site

The online survey is on the council’s Engage platform. It lets you set a site boundary by dropping a pin on a map, drawing the boundary, uploading a map, or uploading a GIS shapefile, then asks for detail about the land.

Three practical points the council makes, and one is easy to fall foul of:

• A separate survey must be completed for each site.
• You cannot save and come back. The survey “must be completed in one sitting”, so the council recommends downloading the Word version first and gathering your information before you start.
• You do not need an account. If you do sign in, you can only submit once; without an account you can submit as many sites as you like.

If the online form does not suit, the Word version can be emailed to LP2045@wokingham.gov.uk, with attachments up to 30MB per email, or posted to the Planning Policy and Infrastructure Team, Wokingham Borough Council, Shute End, Wokingham RG40 1BN.

What happens after 1 September

The council published its statutory timetable on 30 June 2026, agreed by its Executive on 25 June (timetable). It is a long road:

The council warns the timetable “may be updated as the plan progresses”.

Running alongside it is the current Local Plan Update, which is in the final stages of examination. The inspectors wrote to the council on 4 August ordering a series of deletions and changes, including scrapping the valued landscapes designation and raising the affordable housing threshold from five dwellings to ten. We covered that letter in our report on the inspectors’ findings. The council expects a public consultation on the inspectors’ changes later this year and adoption in early 2027. Until the new plan is adopted, the Local Plan Update is what planning decisions will be made against.

What it means for you

• If you own land and think it should be developed, or you want to put forward a site for a park, allotments, a community building or a solar array, 1 September is the deadline. Nothing stops you nominating land for something other than housing.
• If you do not, the useful thing to know is that every suggested site’s location and proposed use becomes public. That list, when it appears, is the first real map of where pressure will fall.
• The scoping consultation in October is the next chance for residents to comment, and it is the stage that shapes what the plan covers.
• For live applications in your area, see our Wokingham planning news page.

Sources

• Wokingham Borough Council: Local Plan 2045 (call for sites deadline, notice to commence, plan status)
• Engage Wokingham Borough: call for sites (who can suggest sites, what types of development, the 1,300 a year figure, publication of site locations, how to submit)
• Local Plan 2045 timetable (Executive decision 25 June 2026, all milestone dates to adoption on 31 July 2029)
• Wokingham Borough Council local plan data CSV (Core Strategy 13,230 homes 2006 to 2026; Local Plan Update 12,763 homes 2023 to 2040; Local Plan 2045 period 2026 to 2045)