3. The Vision and Objectives for Greater Norwich

The Vision for Greater Norwich in 2038

By promoting this Greater Norwich Local Plan our aim is that it will support growth of a diverse low carbon economy which will compete globally through its world class knowledge-intensive jobs in the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor.

As a result, by 2038 Greater Norwich will have vibrant, healthy, inclusive and growing communities supported by the delivery of new homes, infrastructure and an enhanced environment. Growth will make the best of Greater Norwich’s distinct built, natural and historic environments, whilst protecting and enhancing them.

To achieve this, growth will be clean and resource efficient, with significantly reduced emissions to ensure that Greater Norwich plays a full part in meeting national commitments on tackling climate change and is moving towards a post-carbon economy. The focus on three high growth sectors: clean energy, agri-food and ICT/digital, along with the high environmental standards and significant further improvements to our extensive green infrastructure network promoted through this plan, will support Norfolk and Suffolk as the United Kingdom’s clean growth region.

Economy

Generating the right levels of growth in the right places will help our local economy by stimulating economic investment, new infrastructure, new technologies and environmental improvements. This will improve access across Greater Norwich to services and jobs, and lead to better environmental quality.

Our plan will stimulate economic recovery leading to the creation of a strong, enterprising, productive and broad-based economy, and the growth of a wide range of economic sectors, supported by an increasingly skilled workforce. We will see a focus on our local strengths in knowledge intensive sectors. This will include significant growth in digital creative industries in the city centre and in health, life sciences, agri- and bio-technology at the Norwich Research Park and the Food Enterprise Park at Honingham, along with advanced manufacturing and engineering at Hethel. This clean growth will place Greater Norwich at the forefront of tackling the global challenges and opportunities of energy, environment, life sciences, genetics and climate change. Together these will strengthen our leading role nationally and internationally in these sectors which will be critical to moving towards the post-carbon economy.

Most of the jobs growth we expect to see will be delivered on key strategic sites in and around Norwich with good access to public transport, the major road network and a comprehensive cycling network. This will contribute to the growing national importance of the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor and strengthen Norwich’s role as the regional capital.

The city centre will continue to play a significant role as the economic dynamo of the area by providing excellent retail and leisure facilities along with a broad range of cultural and tourism attractions and new jobs needed to support housing growth across the Greater Norwich area.

Parallel to this, the role of smaller scale employment sites elsewhere in the urban area, market towns and villages will help to deliver good access to jobs for all. New technologies and improved broadband and mobile phone infrastructure will also facilitate changes to the way we work, including the growth of small-scale businesses, more working from home and remote working.

Communities

The growth of mixed, inclusive, resilient and sustainable communities will mean that our new communities will be well integrated with our existing communities and will be safe and attractive places to live. People of all ages will have good access to services and facilities including schools, health care, shops, leisure and community facilities and libraries - which will in turn reduce the need to travel. This will also help create communities in which people can interact socially, be independent and have the opportunity for healthy and active lifestyles. New technologies will provide more ways of travelling and accessing services and our new communities will be designed to make active travel and public transport the easiest travel choices.

Homes

High-quality new homes will be built to meet the growing and changing needs of Greater Norwich. There will be a variety of type, tenure and sizes of homes in the mixed and inclusive communities, catering for the needs of all as they change over time and providing both market and affordable homes to meet different needs in our urban and rural areas.

Our plan envisages delivering the right number of homes to meet a variety of housing needs for those living and working in Greater Norwich. These include the rising ageing population, families and younger people, single occupants and those looking to share a home with others. The needs of groups in our community such as Gypsies and Travellers, Travelling Show People and those who live in residential caravans will be provided for in accessible locations.

We plan to concentrate the building of new homes in and around Norwich and in the Cambridge Norwich Tech Corridor. In Norwich City Centre and other highly accessible and sustainable locations, higher density homes including flats will be built, providing particularly for the needs of younger people and including purpose-built student accommodation, whilst also meeting the needs of other members of our community. This will help to create lively and vibrant city and district centres, enabling people to access services and jobs easily and to travel sustainably.

Our suburbs, market towns and villages will also be vibrant places to live with good access to services and facilities, supported by new housing and jobs and changing technologies. Homes here will be built at appropriate densities to respect and enhance local character and to meet the needs of all in mixed communities.

New homes will be large enough to provide a good quality of life, with adaptable homes built to meet the varied and changing needs of our communities. Many homes across Greater Norwich will also be self and custom-built, along with live-work units.

Infrastructure

By 2038 our transport system will be enhanced by a combination of infrastructure improvements and new technologies. Connectivity will improve both within Greater Norwich and to other parts of the country and beyond. This will include better rail services to London, Cambridge, Stansted, Milton Keynes, Oxford and the West, growth at Norwich Airport and road improvements to the A11, A47, the Norwich Western Link and the A140.

Together these will provide greater travel choices and allow people to make the best use of evolving sustainable transport networks, particularly in the urban area. They will also continue to support Norwich’s role as the regional capital and improve access to our rural areas.

The coming decades will see significant changes in how much and how people travel. This plan will help to reduce the impact of travel both by concentrating activities close to centres of population and by assisting an increase in home and remote working. Combined with technological improvements including the addition of new and different transport infrastructure, emissions from transport consequently will be significantly reduced.

For journeys that are still needed there will be a radical shift away from the use of the private car, with many people walking, cycling or using clean public transport. This will be especially evident in the Norwich urban area and the main towns with safe, attractive and well-designed routes for pedestrians and cyclists and fast, frequent and reliable public transport services. Electric vehicles will predominate throughout Greater Norwich and connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) will become more commonplace, initially with taxis and shared demand responsive buses and ultimately for buses, deliveries and private vehicles.

In addition, the delivery of improved telecommunications, broadband and utilities infrastructure throughout the area will both support businesses development, home working, carbon reductions and access to services while also reducing transport emissions.

Existing schools and health facilities will be expanded, and new facilities provided to serve growing communities, with greater use of technology to access some types of health care.

Delivery

We will achieve our vision for sustainable and inclusive growth by a variety of means. These include our proactive approach to co-ordinating development providers, organisations and agencies as well as through interventions in cases where the market cannot deliver infrastructure. The protection and enhancement of a high-quality environment will also have assisted delivery by attracting inward investment. Our GNLP will meet housing need by providing choice and flexibility so that homes will be delivered on allocated and windfall housing sites.

Environment

Greater efficiency in water and energy usage will minimise the need for new infrastructure, and further reductions in carbon emissions will be delivered through the increased use of sustainable local energy sources. New water efficient buildings will also contribute to the protection of our water resources and water quality, helping to ensure the protection of our rivers, the Broads and our other wetland habitats. Development will be carried out in such locations and ways so that rivers and other protected water sites are protected from pollution to ensure water quality does not deteriorate.

Air pollution levels will be reduced through a combination of better design and location of development, supported by technological changes. Improved air quality will mean that there will no longer be any Air Quality Management Areas in Greater Norwich.

This GNLP will protect and enhance the distinctive local characteristics of our city, towns and villages and their separate identities. The distinctive characteristics of our landscapes will also be protected and enhanced. This will be achieved by shaping high-quality, well designed and beautiful new development with green infrastructure, with homes large enough to provide for a good quality of life.

Development will make efficient use of brownfield sites and minimise the loss of greenfield land.

The development of a multi-functional green infrastructure network will continue across Greater Norwich. This enhanced network will help our communities mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, by providing for biodiversity gain through improved and linked habitats, reducing flood risk and improving opportunities for active travel and leisure. Improved access to the countryside will be provided and the quality of our environmental assets will be enhanced. Visitor pressure on the Broads and other internationally and nationally protected sites will be reduced by new and improved green infrastructure both on and linked to developments, including delivery of the Broadland Country Park in Horsford.

Critically, our plan will have helped to achieve reductions in our greenhouse gas emissions to contribute to the national target to reduce all greenhouse gas emissions by 68% by 2030 and by 78% by 2035 compared to 1990 levels and the zero-emission target by 2050.