Draft minutes show cabinet member Matt McCabe told councillors he has asked the government to change Bath's UNESCO wording, a process that starts with delisting.

The council’s cabinet member for housing told a scrutiny panel he has asked the government to change the wording of Bath’s World Heritage inscription. That is recorded in the draft minutes of the 24 September meeting, now published on the council’s committee website.

It is the first official record of what was said at the meeting behind a week of headlines about Bath giving up its UNESCO status. Until now the only council statement was the leader’s, who wrote on 1 October that there was “no intent at all” for Bath to relinquish it.

What the minutes record

The meeting was the Climate Emergency and Sustainability Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel. Councillor Matt McCabe, cabinet member for built environment, housing and sustainable development, presented the draft Local Plan. The draft minutes (PDF) record these exchanges on the World Heritage Site:

  • Councillor Duncan Hounsell asked whether the planning policy team had been “asleep at the wheel for 13 years” in planning for Bath’s growth in light of the inscription.
  • Councillor McCabe replied that the wording was created in 1987, and “we did not expect a doubling of the housing figure. Nobody was asleep at the wheel.”
  • He said he “has communicated to Government that we need to change the UNESCO wording”.
  • Councillor Saskia Heijltjes asked about delisting the status in order to change the wording, and how that works in practice.
  • The minutes record his answer: “the Government proposes changes to the wording and we are delisted straight away. They consider the wording, UNESCO agree and then, we reapply for World Heritage Site Status. The process may take a few years.”

Minutes are a summary written by council officers, not a transcript. These are also a draft: the panel has not yet signed them off as a true record.

How it fits with the leader’s statement

The two are not the same message. The leader’s statement rules out any intent to give up the status. The minutes record the cabinet member asking the government to change the inscription’s wording, and describing a route to that change which begins with delisting.

The minutes do not record anyone proposing that the council should seek delisting. Nor do they record a decision. The panel scrutinises; it does not decide.

Why it matters for housing

The inscription is one of the council’s main reasons for planning fewer homes than the government asks for. The officer report to the same meeting puts the district’s need at 27,324 homes from 2025 to 2043. The draft plan provides for around 22,000, about 80 per cent of that.

The minutes show councillors pressing on that gap:

  • Councillor Hal MacFie asked what the consequences were of putting forward only 80 per cent. An officer said the upside was more control for the next five years if the plan is adopted, and the downside was “potentially not meeting the full housing need”.
  • Councillor Andy Wait said North East Somerset councillors were “effectively being penalised due to the World Heritage Site status of Bath”.

The officer also told the panel the draft plan requires 70 per cent of its affordable homes to be for social rent, and that the viability work supports 40 per cent affordable housing “but there is a degree of flexibility in this”.

We have set out how the draft plan splits its 22,000 homes across the district.

What happens next

  • Friday 30 October: the public consultation on the draft Local Plan closes (have your say).
  • December: cabinet and full council decide whether to submit the plan for examination. The minutes say the panel’s comments will go to those meetings alongside the consultation responses.
  • 31 December 2026: the government deadline for submitting plans under the old system.
  • Late 2027 or early 2028: when an officer told the panel the plan is likely to be adopted. Until then it carries only “limited weight” at planning appeals.

What it means for you

If you care about how many homes Bath takes, the consultation closes on 30 October. The World Heritage argument is at the centre of that number, and the minutes now show the council’s housing lead wants the inscription’s wording changed.

Nothing has been decided about the status itself. Any change to the wording would need the government and UNESCO, not the council alone. Our Bath planning news page tracks the applications the plan will shape.