Leeds’ New Housing and Employment Plan – Crucial Consultation | Aireborough Neighbourhood Development Forum

Leeds City Council is currently starting the process of producing a new Local Development Plan for the period 2022-2042. This will focus on housing and employment, along with infrastructure and other areas such as the environment, flood risk and energy. New government requirements are being built into the plan, such as the compulsory housing target – which for Leeds is 3,811 houses per annum, a review of the Green Belt to identify the new category of Grey Belt, environmental targets, and concepts such as 15-Minute Cities.

The new Local Plan 2042 will have serious implications for Aireborough. It is likely that the area will be given a new housing target which will yet again have implications for the Green Belt, and there will be developments at the airport, all at a time where developments in Menston and Burley are adding to an overloaded infrastructure. It is important that Aireborough’s issues and opportunities are made clear to Leeds planners by the public, and this is the first consultation to enable that to happen.

The consultation is now live on the Leeds website, where there are various sections and questions to answer, including a list of potential housing sites in Aireborough to comment on. You will find that here with responses to be in by 15th September 2025.

It is a long document, broken into sections, with questions at different points. You may want to do it over several sessions. To help understand the overall plan, Leeds also has a number of public events. The one in Guiseley will be on Tuesday 29th July 3-7pm at the Guiseley Methodist Church Hall.

Paper copies of the consultation questions will also be available at the above events and elsewhere, presumably in Libraries.

What Leeds want from the consultation, whether commenting on sites or topics or the local plan vision, is for consultees to do the following. They also ask that residents comment on sites and topics affecting not only where they live but also the district as a whole, if possible.