Guidance

Rollout of the new local plan-making system

Updated 6 March 2026

Applies to England

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rollout-of-the-new-local-plan-making-system/rollout-of-the-new-local-plan-making-system

We will review this guidance and make any necessary revisions and updates as the new system is implemented.

The new local plan-making system will be in force from 25 March 2026. 

Local planning authorities (LPAs) are encouraged to start to prepare a plan as soon as possible in the new system to get an ambitious and up-to-date plan in place.

Regulations underpinning the new system have now been laid. You can also read:

A revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published for consultation on 16 December 2025. We will respond and publish an update once the consultation has been concluded and the necessary analysis of responses completed, which we anticipate completing in the summer of 2026.

If you are preparing a plan in the new system, you should have regard to the consultation draft of the NPPF once published, to help inform the early stages of preparation of your local plan.

Funding and support

There will be at least £14.1 million funding available in the 2025 to 2026 financial year to support local authorities with plan-making.

The period for submitting an expression of interest for funding has closed. Authorities will be informed whether they have been successful in being awarded funding mid-March and the funding will be awarded towards the end of March.

Transition to the new system

There will be a period where 2 local plan-making systems run in parallel, the existing or ‘legacy’ plan-making system and the new plan-making system. This will allow local plans that are at an advanced stage under the existing system to progress to adoption as soon as possible, increasing up-to-date plan coverage.

You must follow the legal requirements of the system you are preparing a plan under from start to finish. For example, you cannot carry out a regulation 18 statutory consultation under the existing system and move directly to publishing your Gateway 1 self-assessment under the new system. Neither can you start formal plan-making in the new system prior to the regulations underpinning the new system coming into force. You have to start by giving notice of your intention to commence plan-making.

When to start plan-making in the new system

If you will submit a local plan under the legacy system by 31 December 2026, you must:

  • give notice of your intention to commence plan-making by 4 years and 8 months from when the emerging legacy plan is adopted
  • publish your Gateway 1 self-assessment by the time your plan is 5 years old

If you are not intending to submit a plan under the existing system by 31 December 2026, you should begin plan-making in the new system as soon as possible to get an ambitious and up-to-date plan in place.

Regulations set out dates for when you must start your plan. These dates:

  • are the very latest a plan can legally be started
  • allow flexibility for you to start your plan earlier

Plans submitted under the 2024 NPPF transitional arrangements

You must publish your notice of intention to commence plan-making by 30 June 2026 and publish your Gateway 1 self-assessment by 31 October 2026 if all of the following apply:

  • your plan was submitted for examination on or before 12 March 2025 but the document was not adopted or approved on or before this date
  • the draft housing requirement in the plan as submitted for examination was meeting less than 80 per cent of local housing need, calculated using the standard method in national planning practice guidance 2024 NPPG as published on 12 December 2024 by the Secretary of State
  • the plan as submitted did not relate to an area in which there was an operative Spatial Development Strategy (SDS)

These criteria are relevant regardless of whether the development plan document was subsequently withdrawn from examination or post-examination.

Publishing your Gateway 1 self-assessment marks the start of the 30-month plan-making timetable.

Read a list of local authorities who will be required to publish a notice of intention to commence plan-making by 30 June 2026 and to publish a Gateway 1 self-assessment by 31 October 2026.

All other local plans

If you do not intend to submit a plan for examination under the existing system by 31 December 2026, you must:

Publishing your Gateway 1 self-assessment marks the start of the 30-month plan-making timetable.

Minerals and waste plans

We encourage you to start work on a new minerals and waste plan as soon as possible.

If you do not intend to submit a plan for examination under the existing system by 31 December 2026, you must:

Publishing your Gateway 1 self-assessment marks the start of the 30-month plan-making timetable.

Preparing a plan under the existing system

If you are progressing a local plan under the existing system, you have until 31 December 2026 to submit it for examination unless specific transitional arrangements set out in the 2024 NPPF apply.

Under the NPPF transitional arrangements, if you published your plan on or before 12 March 2025 and the draft housing requirement met less than 80 per cent of local housing need you are expected to submit your plan by 12 June 2026. This is unless you had to return to regulation 18 to rework your plan in line with the December 2024 NPPF, in which case you have until 31 December 2026 to submit your plan.

This does not include areas where there is an operative SDS which provides the housing requirement for relevant local areas.  

Local Plans withdrawn under the existing system

If you are progressing a plan to adoption under the existing system and the plan is subsequently withdrawn, you must:

  • give notice of your intention to commence plan-making on the same date as the plan is withdrawn or by 30 June 2026, whichever is the later

  • publish your Gateway 1 self-assessment  4 months later, in line with the timings as set out in the regulations

Minerals and waste plans withdrawn under the existing system  

If you are progressing a minerals and waste plan under the existing system and the plan is subsequently withdrawn, you must:    

  • give notice of your intention to commence plan-making on the same date as the plan is withdrawn, or by 30 June 2026, whichever is the later

  • publish your Gateway 1 self-assessment 4 months later, in line with the timings as set out in the regulations

What happens if you do not make progress on your local plan

You must start work on a new plan by the date set out in regulations and you will be expected to prepare a plan within 30 months from publishing your Gateway 1 self-assessment.

If you fail to make progress with your plan-making, the government will consider intervening to accelerate plan progress.

Local planning authorities required to start plan-making by 30 June 2026

These LPAs must publish a notice of intention to commence plan-making by 30 June 2026 and to publish a Gateway 1 self-assessment by 31 October 2026.

  • Amber Valley
  • Bristol, City of
  • Cannock Chase
  • Chichester
  • Dacorum
  • Dudley
  • East Riding of Yorkshire
  • Epsom and Ewell
  • Erewash
  • Great Yarmouth
  • Horsham
  • Hyndburn
  • Isle of Wight
  • King’s Lynn and West Norfolk
  • Malvern Hills
  • Newcastle-under-Lyme
  • North Norfolk
  • Nuneaton and Bedworth
  • Pendle
  • Rutland
  • Sandwell
  • South Oxfordshire
  • South Staffordshire
  • South Tyneside
  • Spelthorne
  • St Albans
  • Stroud
  • Surrey Heath
  • Teignbridge
  • Tunbridge Wells
  • Vale of White Horse
  • West Berkshire
  • Wiltshire
  • Winchester
  • Wirral
  • Wokingham
  • Wolverhampton
  • Worcester
  • Wychavon
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