Source · Select Committees · Environmental Audit Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Accepted in Part
Ensure local planning authorities produce up-to-date local plans for appropriate development assessment
Recommendation
We recommend that the Government do more to ensure that local planning authorities are able to, and do, produce up to date local plans, to ensure that developments are being assessed by appropriate local policies, rather than being subject to the presumption in favour of sustainable development. (Recommendation, Paragraph 44)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government has published a consultation on a new NPPF with policies to align plans with environmental requirements and aims to digitise the planning system with new digital tools to improve plan-making and monitoring. This partially addresses enabling local planning authorities to produce updated plans.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government · verbatim extract
Accepted in Part
9. The Government is committed to delivering a clearer, faster, more accessible plan-making system to speed up the preparation of local plans and ensure that communities benefit from up-to-date plans across England. This is to ensure that all development is determined against up- to-date national and local planning policies. The Government published its response to the previous Government’s consultation on implementing plan- making in February 2025, which confirmed that the Government would bring forward reforms to: introduce a 30-month plan making process; streamline evidence; enable a greater use of digital tools; and set out clearer national policy – to help plan-making authorities prepare shorter, simpler plans more efficiently. The Government also confirmed that it would introduce gateway assessments for plan-making authorities, to provide clear milestones for plan preparation and enable early opportunities to identify and resolve any issues likely to delay progress with the plan. Regulations enabling plan- making authorities to prepare new-system plans are due to come into effect early this year. Draft guidance to support new-system plans has also been published and will continue to be updated in the coming months.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗