Plan Making Reforms Consultation - September 2023 Event Series - Publish.pdf

Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill:
Consultation on implementation of plan-making
reforms
September 2023 Event Series
www.pas.gov.uk
September 2023

Plan-making Reforms
Consultation on Implementation
September 2023
Planning Advisory Service Roadshows

The vision for local plans:
• Simpler to understand and use
• Positively shaped by the views of communities
• Communities and other users can engage with them more easily, especially while they are being
drawn up.
• Prepared more quickly and updated more frequently
• Make the best use of new digital technology
• Development plans provide the foundations for delivering sustainable development.
• Local Plans provide the policy environment needed to make balanced decisions on planning
applications.
• Without up-to-date plans, communities at risk of exposure to speculative applications for
development. Currently, only 35% of local planning authorities adopted a plan in the last five
years, and they take too long to prepare - 7 years on average (but often much longer). This creates
uncertainty.
Policy context

16 thematic chapters with between 1 & 5 questions per chapter:
What are we consulting on?
• Local Plan Content
• The new 30 month local plan timeframe
• Digital plans
• The local plan timetable
• Evidence and the tests of soundness
• Gateway assessments during plan-making
• Local Plan Examination
• Community engagement and consultation
• Requirement to assist with certain plan-
making
• Monitoring of local plans
• Supplementary Plans
• Minerals and Waste Plans
• Community Land Auctions
• Approach to roll out and transition
• Saving existing plans and planning
documents
• Equalities Impact

Provisions in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill
NPPF changes (for either the current system or future system)
Key plan-making implementation dates, set out below, and SPD transitional arrangements (all contingent upon
Royal Assent of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, and Parliamentary approval of the relevant regulations)
Local Plan Commissioners or the new Alignment Policy
What are we NOT consulting on?
Current system Future system
Submission deadline:
30 June 2025
Regs, policy & guidance in place so
plan-making can start: Autumn 2024
Adoption deadline: 31 December
2026

The journey so far…
25 July Consultation launched
3 August PAS webinar
8 September
PAS FAQs
published
September
Roadshow Events
12 September
Community Land
Auction Webinar
18 October
Consultation
closes

What you told us
Key themes:
• 30 month plan-making process:
o Evidence - assembly and proportionality
o Getting timely input from others
o Governance - including political cycles and sign off
• Capacity and capability
• Gateways
• Rollout and transitional arrangements
• Detail of other reforms including:
o NDMPs
o Supplementary Plans
o Alignment policy

Focus for today
• Based on feedback from the webinar, you overwhelmingly told us that delivering plans
in 30 months is your biggest area of interest and concern
• We will use the 30 month process as an anchor for today’s discussions
• We have designed today’s workshop to delve into this in greater detail, including:
• Exploring how the overall reform package can enable and support 30 months
• Identifying barriers to delivering plans in 30 months
• Testing how barriers could be overcome, and what DLUHC can do to support
• Noting where wider changes may cut across the 30 month goal; and what support is
needed
• Putting this in context – what does this mean for authorities now, and over the next
12 months as we approach commencement of the new system?

Aims and Next Steps
• Today’s session should:
• Help DLUHC understand the views of LPAs about our proposals
• Support LPAs to develop and refine forthcoming responses to the consultation
• Open up a positive conversation about what practically LPAs can do next in their
plan-making activities
• Leave attendees inspired about the future of local plans!
• DLUHC will use the feedback to:
• Understand how the sector feels about our proposals
• Identify focus for next phases of policy development
• Understand where support would add the most value, so we can prioritise
• BUT, you should still respond formally to the consultation by the deadline of
October 18

We believe that a 30-month timeframe strikes the appropriate balance
between needing plans to be made more quickly and kept up to date more
effectively, with a realistic view on what is achievable.
We do not intend to set required timings for all stages in regulations.
However, we propose to set out in policy that authorities should adopt their
plan (at the latest) 30 months after the plan preparation process begins (i.e.
after Gateway 1).
Recap: The 30 month
plan-making timeframe
We are seeking views on:
• how best to set the 30 month time limit
• a ‘Project Initiation Document’ to help define the scope of the plan and be a
useful tool throughout the plan making process
Please see consultation for the full diagram

Delivering plans in 30
months
• It’s the outcome of a joined up approach
• Each part of the reform package can speed up plan making but also manage scope
for the planning authority
1. Faster preparation and processing:
• Digital, scoping, timetables, proportionate evidence, gateways + the wider
reforms not consulted on here but part of the joined up approach
2. Managing scope:

Delivering plans in 30
months
• Project Initiation Documents
• Set out reasons for a local plan, establish buy-in
• Issues to address
• Evidence required
• Resources and capacity
• Governance
• Risks: stakeholders, budget, politics

Our ambition is to bring planning and plan making into the digital age and transform how things are done for the
better; to provide faster, simpler, more accessible plans and policies to deliver better outcomes, informed by up-
to-date data and shaped more actively by communities and other stakeholders.
The Levelling up and Regeneration Bill will allow us to prescribe a common format for standardised data across
plan-making. We think this should be supported and complemented by a toolkit of services and products that
will allow planning authorities to prepare plans more quickly and produce simpler, visual and accessible plans.
• the information produced during plan-making that would most
benefit from data standardisation and/or open publication
• challenges faced in the current plan-making system where
digitalisation could support better outcomes
• opportunities for digital tools and products that should be
prioritised to deliver efficiencies in how plans are prepared
and used
Recap: Digital plans

11 key pain points identified through listening
to plan making participants
1. Lack of guidance on how to make plan can result in
unclear ownership, inconsistencies, and delays.
2. Uncertainty about evidence requirements and fear of
challenge at examination can drive overproduction, which
leads to delays and puts pressure on time-strapped planning
officers.
3. Citizens often don't understand Local Plans, and
planners don’t have capacity/guidance to involve
them resulting in a poor public perception and low engagement.
4. Lack of clear communicable timelines and updates
can prevent users from understanding and getting involved.
5. Lack of standard formats, terminology, templates can
make Plans inconsistent, time-consuming to develop and hard to
use.
6. The political nature of the process can
be masked reducing trust as plans are not a true reflection of
decisions made.
6. Documents are technical, long and contain
unnecessary detail making them hard to use and
navigate.
7. Plans are usually static and pdf based meaning
they go out of date quickly and are no longer relevant.
8. Plans are uncertain and take so long to produce
that they are often out of date, driving development to go a
different route.
9. Poor monitoring and feedback loops can mean that
plans are not updated and evolve.
10. Data is often locked up in pdfs, making data not
accessible or usable.
11.Parts of the plan-making process are simply
more laborious, repetitive and time consuming
than they need to be (eg reps processing)

Recap: the toolkit approach as outlined in the
consultation document
TOOLKIT PLAYBOOK
FRONT STAGE
BACK STAGE
INFRASTRUCTURE

How is digital support for new Local Plans
being addressed?
Cross-cutting service components:
( eg Local Plans ‘home’, data standardisation, guidance, monitoring, notifications)
Minimum Valuable
Service (MVS)
(minimum set of tools &
services to be valuable for the
user on ‘Day1’
SELECTING SITES
How might digital enhance
site selection & allocation?
Enabling & supporting the
new Gateways
& examination process
Opportunities for digital efficiencies in
consultations & reps processing
Alpha
prototype & test
MVS evolves over time,
in response to data &
learning in the field
In parallel:
How are digital Local Plans
assembled & presented?
Other workstreams as needed
CONSTRUCTING COMPONENTS OF A LOCAL PLAN
GATEWAYS & EXAMINATIONS Discovery
learning &
hypothesis
Beta
refine & build
CONSULTATIONS & REPS
4 current areas of exploration: 2023 2024 2025 >

Delivering Local Plans in a Timely
Manner
www.pas.gov.uk
Good Practice Examples

local.gov.uk/pas
We’ll cover…
• Scoping, Project initiation (+PID)
• Project plans
• Creativity with resources
• Proportionate evidence
• Gateway reviews
• Being bold!

local.gov.uk/pas
• Informs the Project Initiation Document (PID) &
project plan
• Identifies key risks and how to manage/mitigate them
• Take a holistic approach to project scoping
o Look beyond evidence base production to procedural
issues e.g. strategic matters, Governance
arrangements, Community, Member & Stakeholder
engagement & Consultation
o Consider using PAS Local Plan Route Mapper
and Toolkit
• Use outputs from scoping to secure corporate buy-in,
articulate challenges and manage risks to plan-making
Scoping, project initiation

local.gov.uk/pas
• Actively manage Plan production:
o Identify key milestones and potential risks
o Assess resources, assess progress
• To be a useful tool, it needs to be realistic:
o Not just the evidence base; (DtC, AMR etc)
o Estimate time requirements for key tasks and map against
team resources/available budget
o Articulate interdependencies between different elements
o Build in contingency time and expect the unexpected
o Include governance and other lead-in times
• Use it to help manage expectations and articulate
priorities
Use a Project Plan

local.gov.uk/pas
• We recognise the issue!
• Be realistic and creative about approach to resourcing
• Understand resourcing peaks
• Think about what roles really need a policy officer and
where you can draw on wider planning or other expertise
• Workstreams in parallel
• Consider options to boost capacity:
o Prioritisation and management of tasks within policy team
o Wider resources within the Council and use of digital
o Secondments
o Neighbouring authorities and county councils
o Potential to outsource resource intensive tasks
Creativity with Resources

local.gov.uk/pas
Proportionate Evidence
Direction of travel:
• Clearer evidence expectations in
NPPF
• Distinction between
soundness/legal and informative
• Only argued at examination
• Appropriate strategy
• Guidance: proportionate and
good evidence
• Digital
https://www.local.gov.uk/pas/plan-making/
local-plan-review-update/evidence-base/
evidence-plan-making-focus-upon

local.gov.uk/pas
Gateway Reviews
• Not a completely new concept
• They are an enabler, not a barrier
• The first 2 are advisory, the 3rd = stop/go
• Work doesn’t stop (nor should the clock)

local.gov.uk/pas
• Challenging the norm/consider new ways of doing things
• Key areas to consider:
o Streamlining governance arrangements/lead-in times
o Accelerating procurement timetable/required steps
• Manage political pressures and expectations – using the
PID/project plan/Route Mapper and Toolkit can help to
evidence the value of an alternative approach and secure
corporate buy in.
• Having a second opinion from a critical friend can be
valuable and support decision making to help keeping
things on track. Especially helpful in keeping members on
board.
Be Bold!

Roundtable discussions – Supporting
the delivery of a 30-Month Plan
Before lunch: Transferrable current
practice, new approaches, the key
challenges & solutions…
After Lunch: feedback / sharing… www.pas.gov.uk

Supporting the delivery of the 30-Month Plan
Roundtable 1 Exercise to consider:
1. Scoping & early participation (ahead of
the 30-month timeframe commencing).
2. Plan visioning & strategy development.
3. Evidence gathering and drafting the plan.
4. Engagement, proposing changes,
submission.

How? Key ambitions – How to make
Local Plans:
✓ Simpler and easier to understand?
✓ Prepared more quickly and updated
more frequently?
✓ Positively shaped through
engagement?
✓ Make best use of digital technology?

Use a piece of Flipchart paper for each phase to capture:
Now (Yellow notes)
Capture current good practice:
• Existing examples – Reinventing the wheel is
OK.
• Practice that is low risk, high acceptability and
easy to implement.
• Solutions to fill existing gaps in processes.
• Focus on incremental benefits.
Wow (Green notes)
Capture innovative practice that can be
implemented:
• ‘Wow’ ideas are those with potential for
significant change and possible to implement
within current reality.
• Innovative breakthrough ideas.
• Practice that has high impact.
• Practice that is relatively easy to implement.
Challenges / Risks / Unknowns”
(Pink notes)
Capture what makes delivering the “How” difficult.
• What currently challenges the “How”?
• What risks are there to achieving the ambitions?
• What practice is currently impossible to
implement (what are we waiting for and need to
know?)
Solutions / mitigations (Orange notes)
For each pink note provide at least one solution or
mitigation focussing on:
• What is within the LPAs discretion?
• How can we reduce the risk?
• What could government do to help?
• What can we do better?
• What can we stop doing?
• Remember each solution however big or small
adds to the understanding of what is possible

Roundtable 2 – Supporting the delivery
of a 30-Month Plan
Feedback…
Solutions and recommendations for
the key challenges
www.pas.gov.uk

Roundtable 3 – Capacity and capability
www.pas.gov.uk
A discussion and workshop on the skills and
resources that will be most useful to deliver
the future planning system

Close your eyes, imagine it’s the year 2033
• Nationally Local Plan coverage is high, with nearly 100% of councils having an up-to-date plan in
place.
• Some elements of plan production have been templated and standardised.
• The focus of plan development for councils is focused on strategy and visioning, translating the
corporate ambitions into reality. The scoping of development strategies and directions for growth
starts with the environment and is driven by capitalising on environmental improvements.
• Public engagement in plan-making is much higher than in 2023; councils engage with their
communities almost solely via electronic means. Consultation features such as virtual exhibits, 3D
visualisations, virtual post-it notes, social media, chat bots, AI and other digital means to collect,
categorise, group and predict community views is all normal practice.
• There are national datasets and real-time information available making the generation of evidence
base and monitoring data live with policy decisions & adaptations being made quickly.
• Affordability of housing is still an issue in many parts of the country; likewise land values in many
area make viability of new development a challenge.
• More councils have either merged into new larger authorities or have had the move to having joint
local plans or sub regional plans
• The recruitment and resourcing problems of 2023 are but a distant memory.

What should LPAs do now?
What plan making activity can we be
getting on with over the next 12-
months?
www.pas.gov.uk

We want to ensure a smooth transition to the new system for planning authorities.
The latest date for plan-makers to submit local plans for examination under the current system will be 30 June
2025. We also confirm our intention that those plans will, in general, need to be adopted by 31 December
2026. these dates are contingent upon Royal Assent of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.
Small cohort of around ten “front runner” authorities to prepare new-style local plans
The “front runners” could start plan-making from autumn 2024.
Other LPAs would be grouped and allocated a 6 month plan-making commencement window (a “wave”),
Alternatives are proposed, along with proposals around protections from speculative development
• options for rolling out the new plan-making system (including protections)
• a proposal for existing development plan documents and saved policies to remain in force until the
planning authority adopt a new-style local plan
Recap: Roll out, transition
and saving

Indicative phasing of start times for new-style plans
Rollout and transition

Key information
• The consultation will be open until 18 October 2023
• Responses encouraged to use Citizen Space: https://consult.levellingup.gov.uk/planning/plan-making-reform-
consultation/
• Questions should be directed to: planmakingconsultation@levellingup.gov.uk

local.gov.uk/pas
What’s next?
• Plan-making reforms events
- London, Mon 11th September
- Manchester 13th September
– York 14th September
– Birmingham 19th September
– Exeter 21st September
• Plus other topic specific sessions – keep an eye on our
newsletter and also tell us what would help.
• PAS will summarise all of the feedback today to support DLUHC in
next stage considerations of reforms – BUT IT IS IMPORTANT
THAT YOU ALSO STILL FEEDBACK AS A COUNCIL

local.gov.uk/pas
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