Devolution Diaries: What happens to Local Plans?

With Councils set to share their initial plans for the creation of new Unitary and Combined authorities in the coming days, we are entering a crucial phase in the most significant reorganisation of local government in over fifty years. One aspect which has potentially been overlooked to date by most commentators, is how do these changes impact on the delivery of Local Plans.

As we have heard recently from Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook MP, the Government wants to see a significant speeding up of the Local Plan making process. On 27 February, the Minister announced to the House of Commons that Councils will be expected to prepare Local Plans to be produced within a shorter timetable of 30 months as opposed to the current average of seven years. The Minister announced that Councils will receive £70,000 of additional funding to assist with this process. 

Whether the Unitarisation of local government will assist with the Government’s aspirations to ensure that Local Plans are in force and up to date, is somewhat debatable. We currently see examples of certain District Councils in the Home Counties which have essentially been given notice of their impending demise and have responded by showing very little urgency in adopting Local Plans. In some instances, these local authorities which typically contain a significant amount of Green Belt land, are citing the ongoing reorganisation as a reason for further delays in the adoption of Plans which have already failed to meet expected timescales. It remains to be seen whether the Government follows through on its pro-Local Plan rhetoric to ensure that further backsliding by District Councils who are reluctant to adopt Plans is met with a reaction.

Another matter to consider is what will happen to District Council Local Plans which are significantly progressed but have not yet been adopted when the Council is abolished and whether the new Unitary authority will adopt such plans. The case of Buckinghamshire Council, which became a Unitary authority in 2021 is a useful case study on this point. Under its current leadership, Buckinghamshire Council has shown a strong preference for large scale development to be focussed in the North of the county and has sought to rely on the Green Belt and the Chilterns AONB to protect the South of the county. With this approach in mind, it was unsurprising to see the new Unitary authority to adopt the Vale of Aylesbury Local Plan which it inherited while simultaneously deciding to withdraw the joint Chiltern/South Buckinghamshire Local Plan despite some of this area having not adopted a Local Plan for several decades. The Buckinghamshire example demonstrates that there is recent precedent for Unitary authorities to both adopt and withdraw Local Plans which they inherit from abolished Districts and this is something we should be mindful of for future new Unitaries.

Furthermore, there is minimal evidence that Unitary Councils have been much more successful than District Councils in getting Local Plans adopted in a timely manner. Buckinghamshire was expected to have adopted a Local Plan by 2025 but is now estimating that its new Plan will not be adopted for at least another two years having not yet been submitted for examination. Shropshire Council which was part of the 2009 wave of new Unitaries, submitted a Local Plan for examination in 2021 but in November 2024 it was reported that the examination was being suspended. Other Unitary authorities such as the Independent-led Central Bedfordshire have also struggled to progress a draft Plan in recent times. It remains to be seen how far the Government will intervene in cases of Unitary authorities which fail to meet their Local Plan adoption timetables.

In summary, while in theory the Unitarisation of Local Government and the willingness of the Government to move forward with a Plan-led system should mean that more Plans are adopted in a timely manner, recent evidence suggests a mixed picture and there is no guarantee that Unitaries will progress Plans any more quickly than Districts especially where there is a default position from their political leadership to be broadly sceptical of new residential development.