Guidance

How to establish a neighbourhood forum

This guidance is designed to help groups or individuals who want to establish a neighbourhood forum and to develop a suitable constitution.

• From: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
• Published: 24 July 2026

Applies to England

Documents

How to establish a neighbourhood forum

PDF, 270 KB, 25 pages

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Details

This guidance covers:

• the issues to be considered when agreeing a constitution
• the importance of record keeping
• types of legal structure for forums
• information to help prospective forums chose the structure that best meets their needs

It also contains a constitution checklist.

We are currently updating our guidance and toolkits. This toolkit is provided for reference but has not yet been updated to reflect recent changes to planning policy. It remains useful as background information, but regularly check the neighbourhood planning page for updates to neighbourhood planning policy and guidance.

Published 24 July 2026