The government's demand that Somerset provide an "astronomical" 75,000 new homes over the next 20 years is "not sensible", a senior councillor has claimed.

Somerset Council is in the early stages of creating its new county-wide Local Plan, which is expected to be formally adopted in the spring of 2029 following two rounds of public consultation and a review by the Planning Inspectorate.

Following its election victory, the Labour government increased local housing targets as part of its pledge to build 1.5 million homes by the end of this parliament – with Somerset's target rising by 41 per cent.

But local councillors – including the portfolio holder for planning – have said that this figure is "too high" and could lead to local residents losing a say in how their communities develop.

Numerous parish councillors raised the issue when the council's planning and transport policy sub-committee met in Taunton on October 8.

Colin Fisher, chairman of Stoke St. Mary Parish Council, said that local councils had "seen their efforts ignored, overridden and unsupported" by Somerset Council's planning officers making decisions on the basis of national policy and not local demand.

Speaking on behalf of 12 other parish councils, he said: "The Somerset Local Plan is developer-led. Whatever its strategic merits, the execution of the plan would be deeply flawed without the detailed understanding contained in Neighbourhood Plans.

"You have a chance to make a better plan – and in our view, a better plan is one that focusses on places rather than simply trying to meet arbitrary housing targets.

"This better way draws on the intimate local knowledge which is present in every parish, whether it's developed into a Neighbourhood Plan or not."

Isobel Beacom, who sits on Wedmore Parish Council, said that rural parishes would be undermined by the "emphasis on speed and centralisation" within the government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is currently progressing through the House of Lords.

She said: "Our Neighbourhood Plan reflects those realities, directing housing to sites that can cope, protecting green spaces, and ensuring infrastructure is considered alongside growth.

"Without that plan, development risks being imposed without regard to our rural constraints, leaving us with unsustainable pressure on schools, health facilities, drainage, and narrow rural roads.

"The danger is clear: speed could come at the cost of democracy and local accountability."

Harriet Chappell, who sits on Queen Camel Parish Council, added: "When our Neighbourhood Plan was written in 2019, we had just under 300 houses in the village, and we stipulated that we were going to be looking at 30 new houses over a ten-year period.

"Planning permission has been granted for 43 houses [on West Camel Road] – that's a 14.5 per cent increase in the size of the village.

"The chap who owns the field has submitted another field as part of your 'call of sites', and if he gets his 30 houses on there, we would then end up with a 20 per cent increase in our tiny village.

"We've already got a high street which is dominated by overweight HGVs. What's going to happen to the character of these villages?"

Councillor Mike Rigby, Somerset Council's portfolio holder for economic development, planning and assets, admitted that he thought the government's housing target for Somerset was "too high" and may be undeliverable.

He said: "As the person who guided through the Bishop's Lydeard Neighbourhood Plan, I'm very keen on the concept.

"In the next Local Plan, we're being asked to find space in Somerset to find space for 75,000 new homes over the next 20 years. It's an astronomical number, and one with which I frankly have some quarrel.

"I've taken the opportunity, with the appointment of the new housing secretary [Steve Reed MP], to suggest that the number is not a sensible number to aim for – it's too big.

"It's taken since the dawn of time until today for the population of the Somerset Council area to reach 580,000 – and I've no idea why the government think that is going to increase by a further 30 per cent in the next 20 years."

Mr Rigby (who represents the Lydeard division near Taunton) said that Somerset's low-lying nature and large amounts of protected landscapes would make it much harder to meet such a high target.

He said: "There are huge numbers of constraints in Somerset – not least of which being that a large part of the centre of the county has a tendency to flood from time to time. We have four National Landscapes and the Exmoor National Park.

"It will be the case, I'm afraid, that Neighbourhood Plans will not be entirely adhered to across the county.

"Planning is increasingly seen as a delivery agency for central government, rather than what I would call true local government. That is a path we've been on for some time, and I don't know if we'll ever reverse it."

Councillor Sarah Wakefield, portfolio holder for adults services, housing and homelessness, said that the new Local Plan needed to take account of wider societal changes – including more people wishing or needing to live on their own (e.g. because of relationship breakdowns).

Ms Wakefield (who represents the Blackdown and Neroche division near Wellington) said: "We've got lots and lots of single people living separately now from when they used to be together, and that is causing a huge issue.

"On our Homefinder register, which is now up to nearly 12,900 people households waiting for homes, well over 50 per want a single-person property.

"It's not just people living longer – it's the type of properties they want and the way we are living in our society."

The first draft of the Somerset Local Plan will be going out to public consultation in April 2026, with a number of public events being organised to allow local people to give their views.

Once feedback has been collected and analysed, a second round of consultation on the amended Local Plan will take place in October 2027, before the document is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate in January 2028.

The appointed inspector will thereafter hold further hearings and make any necessary modifications to bring the Local Plan closer in line with central government policy – with the final version being adopted in March 2029.

Until the new Local Plan takes effect, all planning decisions will be taken on the basis of the various Local Plans which Somerset Council inherited from the former districts (Mendip, Sedgemoor, Somerset West & Taunton and South Somerset) upon their abolition in April 2023.