New System Plan Funding
Funding for local authorities committed to bringing a plan forward early in the new plan-making system.
The government has announced a minimum of £14 million of funding to support local authorities with local plan-making. This funding is in addition to the £29 million of funding awarded in January and March 2025.
This new funding will be available to eligible authorities producing plans in both the legacy and new plan making systems.
The following funds are available:
Legacy System Plan Funding – funding for legacy system plans. The legacy system covers those plans to be prepared and adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (excluding the amendments made by the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023) and the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning)(England) Regulations 2012.
New System Plan Funding – funding for local authorities committed to bringing a plan forward early in the new plan-making system.
New System Plan Funding
Funding is being provided to local authorities to help them in bringing ensure that they are supported in bringing a plan forward early in the new plan-making system. This will include local authorities who will be legally required to publish a notice of intention to commence local plan preparation by 30 June 2026 and to publish their Gateway 1 self-assessment by 31 October 2026, as well as other local authorities preparing a plan in the new plan-making system who commit to meeting these dates.
Local authorities must meet all of the criteria set out below to be awarded a share of this funding.
Eligibility criteria
Local authorities will be eligible for this funding if they:
- will be preparing a plan in the new plan-making system
- commit to publishing their notice of intention to commence local plan preparation by 30 June 2026
- commit to publishing their Gateway 1 self-assessment by 31 October 2026
These dates have been set out on the Create or update a Local Plan pages.
If you are an authority who we consider will be legally required to commence a plan in the new plan-making system by the dates specified above, an email from MHCLG will have been sent to your chief executive inviting your authority to submit an expression of interest form by 5pm on 28 January 2026 to request a share of this funding.
If you are a local authority preparing a plan in the new plan-making system who is not legally required to commence a plan by the above dates, but are able to commit to doing so, we also invite you to submit an expression of interest form by 28 January 2026 to request a share of this funding.
View and complete the expression of interest form.
New System Plan Funding will be provided via Section 31 Local Government Act powers.
MHCLG expects funded councils to have proposals in place by the end of the financial year for how they will commit the grant funding.
Successful local authorities will be notified that they will receive funding by 6 March, and payments will be made by 13 March 2026. Funding will be equally divided across eligible local authorities with an expected award of around £120,000 each. However, subject to the number of applicants, the funding awarded could be more or less than this amount.
Monitoring and evaluation
The fund will be monitored through existing arrangements. This will include ongoing engagement between MHCLG and local authorities, alongside monitoring of progress against local plan milestones set out in local plan timetables.
Local authorities that are awarded funding may be invited to share feedback to help MHCLG better understand whether the funding was able to achieve its stated aims and inform the design of future funding.
Contact us
Should you have any questions about this funding, please email: localplanfunding@communities.gov.uk