Following my written statement concerning local plan making and guidance—[Official Report, 27 February 2025; Vol. 762, c. 62WS.]—I am today providing an update on the implementation of our reforms to the plan-making system in England.
This Government were elected on a manifesto that included a clear commitment to build 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament, and all areas are required to play their part. In order to deliver the homes and growth that the country needs, we expect all local planning authorities to make every effort to get up-to-date local plans in place as soon as possible.
The plan-led approach is, and must remain, the cornerstone of our planning system. Local plans are the best way for communities to shape decisions about how to deliver the housing and wider development their areas need. In the absence of an up-to-date plan, there is a high likelihood that development will come forward on a piecemeal and speculative basis, with reduced public engagement and fewer guarantees that it will make the most of an area’s potential. It is for these reasons that the level of up-to-date plan coverage we inherited is so problematic.
As a Government, we have made a clear commitment to achieving universal local plan coverage. To that end, we have been clear that we intend to drive local plans to adoption as quickly as possible. That is why we introduced transitional arrangements for emerging plans in preparation as part of the changes we made to the national planning policy framework in December last year, and why we have recently awarded over £29 million in funding to 188 local planning authorities to support the rapid preparation of plans that reflect that updated framework.
However, the current system is optimised neither for speed, nor for community participation. The Government are therefore clear that more fundamental reform to the system is needed, to ensure that local plans are faster to prepare and simpler for end users to access and understand.
In February, we published the Government’s response to the previous Government’s consultation on implementation of plan-making reforms. I am today publishing more detailed information about the design of the legislation required to implement the new system; how we intend to roll it out across the country, and the resources that will be made available to support plan makers to that end.
Designing and implementing new plan-making regulations
We will shortly lay the regulations that will underpin our new approach to plan making. These will reflect our February 2025 response to the previous Government’s consultation on the new plan-making system, and their development has taken into account responses to that consultation, as well as feedback provided through extensive engagement with the sector.