Local planning authorities must prepare a Local Development Framework which comprises a folder of Local Development Documents (LDDs) for delivering the spatial strategy for the area (as opposed to the old single plan covering the whole of the authority’s area). LDDs comprise Development Plan Documents and Supplementary Planning Documents, which expand polices set out in development plan documents or provide additional detail. The Local Development Framework also includes a Statement of Community Involvement, the Local Development Scheme (which sets out the programme for the production of LDDs) and the Annual Monitoring Report.

Within the Local Planning Authority’s Local Development Framework, Development Plan Documents and Statements of Community Involvement must be ‘sound’ (section 20 of the 2004 Act) both in terms of their content and the process by which they are produced. They must also be founded on a robust and credible evidence base.

Visit The Planning Portal Website for a visual guide to Local Development Frameworks on the Planning Portal Site.

The Local Development Framework Lessons Learnt Examining Development Plan Documents (1MB) document provides detailed guidance on the lessons which have emerged from experience of the early examinations.

Planning Policy Statement 12: Local Spatial Planning

The revised Planning Policy Statement 12: ‘creating strong safe and prosperous communities through local spatial planning’ was published on 4 June 2008.
This revised PPS12 puts in place the national policy framework for creating local development frameworks. It has been significantly reduced in length from the previous PPS12, and concentrates on the key policy framework.

Emphasising the key role the Core Strategy plays, its links to the Sustainable Community Strategy and the need for corporate support, from the Chief Executive and key Members;
Emphasising the need for making progress with LDFs, to assist in the delivery of key Government and Council priorities (including housing delivery, and any targets identified in the Local Area Agreement);
Giving local authorities more flexibility to determine what documents they will produce, and what process they will adopt in taking the documents from initial stages to adoption;
Putting more emphasis on forward looking infrastructure planning; and
Repackaging the tests of soundness to give greater clarity whilst not altering the basis for examination of plans, this places the focus on justification (evidence) and effectiveness (deliverability) of the strategy. Read the new Examining Development Plan Documents: Soundness Guidance (1.8MB).

Plan Making Manual

The Plan Making Manual is an on-line only resource aimed at providing guidance and best practice on LDFs. The plan-making manual will be updated on a regular basis in order to capture emerging best practice, and also to publish additional advice on aspects of the revised plan-making process. The Inspectorate will be working with Communities and Local Government, the Planning Advisory Service and local authorities to produce this. The aim is to review the web-based manual content every 3-6 months.

View the Plan Making Manual

Regulatory Amendments to LDF Procedure

The Town and Country Planning (Local Development)(England)(Amendment) Regulations 2008 have been laid before Parliament. These regulations put in place the proposals made in the Planning White Paper last year to help streamline the local development framework process. These will come into force on 27 June 2008.

View the new Regulations

Detailed process advice on the revised regulations, has been placed in the on-line Plan-Making Manual. The transitional arrangements are set out in the regulations with more detailed guidance also in the plan making manual (see below).
Key changes include:

Improved consultation arrangements – reducing the number of formal stages while giving the public more opportunity to get involved at the beginning of the process by ensuring better links between the Sustainable Community Strategy and the Core Strategy;
Revisions to the procedure of plan making – moving the point where the plan is submitted to the independent Inspector so that representations made on the final consultation can be taken into account before submission.

Transitional Arrangements and Emerging Policy

The transitional arrangements are set out in the regulations with more detailed guidance in the Plan-Making Manual. The manual also covers the issue of 'Dealing with emerging policy'.

Having regard to the transitional arrangements and the advice on emerging policy, where a DPD examination has already commenced as at 4 June 2008 (i.e. the DPD has been submitted to the Secretary of State) the Inspectorate shall continue to examine the DPD on the basis of the 9 tests of soundness set out under old PPS12.

Any DPD submitted from 4 June 2008 will be subject to the examination approach set out in new PPS12. The examination will involve the legal compliance check (paragraph 4.50 of PPS12) and an assessment against 3 tests of soundness (see paragraphs 4.36 to 4.38 and 4.44 to 4.47 of PPS12). These 3 tests require that the DPD is Justified; Effective and Consistent with national policy.

As from 1 September 2008, before a council submits a development plan document to the Secretary of State, it must publish and make available the documents it proposes to submit (new regulation 27). This will enable the council to gather the representations on the DPD prior to submission under new regulation 30. New Inspectorate procedural guidance to cover the implications of this revised procedure, including improvements to the examination timetable, will be made available prior to 1 September 2008.

Fees

Revised fees for Local Development Framework (LDF) examinations, intended to recover from local planning authorities the cost of providing Inspectors, were introduced on 3 January 2007.

The Planning Inspectorate’s previous fees did not reflect the full costs of examining the soundness of Statements of Community Involvement (SCIs) and Development Plan Documents (DPDs) introduced under the new Local Development Frameworks. The phased increases are designed to strike a balance between achieving Treasury requirements for full recovery as soon as practicable while keeping year-on-year increases to a reasonable figure. By phasing increases over several years in this way, local planning authorities will have a more stable basis for budgeting over the period. The phasing increased the daily fee from £679 to £779 for examinations opening on or after 3 January 2007, to £879 for examinations opening on or after 31 March 2007 and to £993 for examinations opening on or after 31 March 2008. Under the LDF system the examination commences on submission of the SCI/DPD.

The fees for LDF examinations were set under the Town and Country Planning (Costs of Inquiries etc) (Standard Daily Amount) Regulations 2006 (SI 2006/3227), which came into force on 3 January 2007 , following consultation with planning bodies (the Local Government Association, the Planning Officers’ Society, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

Development Plan Documents submitted for Examination

Read the list of the Development Plan Documents in PDF format 24kb that have been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.

Read the list of the Statements of Community Involvement in PDF format 176kb that have been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate and have been adopted by the Local Planning Authorities.

How to view PDF documents

PDF files can be viewed using Adobe's Acrobat Reader. You can download Acrobat Reader free of charge from the Adobe website. Visit Access Adobe to find out how people with visual disabilities can get the most from this software.