The Government has confirmed that it will shortly lay the regulations for the new plan making system alongside updated guidance on creating a local plan under the new system. Additionally, a Written Ministerial Statement has been issued to remove the duty to cooperate.
Duty to cooperate will not be saved
The 'Reforming Local Plan-Making' Written Ministerial Statement (WMS)
[1] published 27th November states the anticipated Regulations for the new plan-making system
“will ‘save’ the current plan-making system for a period to allow emerging plans to progress to examination by 31 December 2026”.
However, the Government has
"decided not to ‘save’ the Duty [to Cooperate][2], thereby removing this requirement for plans in the current system".
Removing the statutory duty is described as a move to “help drive local plans to adoption as quickly as possible and progress towards [the Government’s] objective of universal local plan coverage”.
Although the wording of the WMS suggests that the Duty to Cooperate has already been withdrawn, it hasn’t, but the motivation to comply with it will be limited. The Housing Minister has written to the Planning Inspectorate to provide clarity as to how the Duty to Cooperate land lies. His letter of 27 November 2025 includes some of the policy from the WMS:
“The Duty will therefore cease to apply when the Regulations come into force early next year, including for plans at examination at that point. On the basis of the government’s firm intention to abolish the Duty for the current system, examining Inspectors may wish to begin any necessary dialogue with LPAs in advance of the Regulations coming into effect, with reference to this letter. Of course, LPAs should continue to collaborate across their boundaries, including on unmet development needs from neighbouring areas and Inspectors should continue to examine plans in line with the policies in the NPPF on ‘maintaining effective co-operation’”.
This will, quite deliberately, lead to a number of local plans moving forward without the Duty to Cooperate prior to spatial development strategies being in place to distribute housing need across housing market areas. This could result in difficulties in cases where a local authority is unable to meet its identified housing need within its existing boundaries and therefore risks planning for fewer homes than is needed at a wider area.
Further details on the future of local plan making to be laid out.
The Government has published a ‘
Plan-making regulations explainer’ setting out its proposals for the new plan-making system
[3]. The regulations emanate from the proposals set out under the previous administration for a plan-making process that focusses on simpler plans, prepared quickly, updated frequently and reflective of local needs.
[4]The Reforming Local Plan-Making WMS outlining the measures says:
“This government was elected on a manifesto that included a clear commitment to build 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament, and all areas are required to play their part. In order to deliver the homes and growth the country needs, we expect all local planning authorities to make every effort to get up-to-date local plans in place as soon as possible.
The Minister also stated that the Government will “shortly” lay the regulations that will underpin the new plan making measures with the new plan making process “coming into force early next year”. Matthew Pennycook MP also said, “The regulations will set out a new process for producing plans with clear steps that a local planning authority will need to take”.
Both the existing and new plan making systems will run in parallel throughout 2026, with local planning authorities being able to submit plans under the existing system until 31 December 2026.
As noted above, the regulations for the new local plan system will also ‘save’ the current plan making system for a period to allow emerging plans to progress to examination by 31 December 2026 plans that do not meet this deadline would need to progress under the new plan making system.
We outline the key announcements regarding the new plan-making system below.
Plan-making ‘waves’ ditched
The Government is not taking forward the proposals that would have seen the system being rolled out in a series of ‘waves’. Instead, local planning authorities (LPAs) are encouraged to bring plans forward as soon as possible following the commencement of the regulations which will provide ‘backstop’ dates for when plan-making must legally have commenced. The Minister explained:
“This is to help local planning authorities get ambitious plans in place as soon as possible and to support those starting work on a new plan early in the new plan-making system. Further details will be published shortly”.
LPAs will have a 30-month timeline for plans to be produced, followed by a six-month examination period for plans with no proposed modifications.
Three formal Gateway Assessments at the beginning, middle and end of the plan preparation process are being taken forward to support plan preparation and help identify issues in the evidence base before examination. These are:
-
Gateway 1 (scope and strategic priorities);
-
Gateway 2 (draft plan); and,
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Gateway 3 (readiness for examination).
For LPAs covered by the NPPF transitional arrangements, they will have to commence formal plan making (Gateway 1) by 31 October 2026. For all other local plans more than five years old i.e. those which do not intend to use the old system, they must commence by 30 April 2027.
The Government will provide a minimum of £14 million of funding this financial year to LPAs to support local plan-making.
New guidance and tools
In addition to the ‘
Plan-making regulations explainer’, a series of dedicated guidance and tools to support plan-makers bring forward a local plan in the new system have also been published in draft. This builds on the new dedicated plan making guidance page
'create or update a local plan' which was published in February 2025. This includes updates to:
Additional practical tools and templates to support plan making will be provided by the
Planning Advisory Service in due course.
As set out in the revised NPPF published in December 2024, plans that have reached Regulation 19 stage on or before 12 March and needed updating as they were meeting less than 80% of local housing need, are still expected to be updated and submitted by 12 June 2026, unless updating the plan required the authority to return to Regulation 18 stage. If this was the case, authorities have until 31 December 2026 to reach submission.
Closing thoughts
The Government’s announcements this week, combined with its push for planning reform more broadly, suggest it remains focussed on delivering more of the homes and infrastructure required in order to achieve the consequent benefits to economic growth. As with the previous administration, the Government’s aim is to deliver a more streamlined and standardised approach to plan making. It has been clear for some time that despite what is a purported plan-led system, plan making has stalled across much of the country, with local plan coverage
[5] in dire straits.
The Government will hope that the new 30-month timeline for plans to be produced, and the clear reporting on timelines, milestones and outcomes will encourage local plan-making. And that this, combined with future changes to simplify nationally consistent policies through the new NPPF and forthcoming national decision-making policies, will avoid a plan-making hiatus – particularly where LPAs argue that they are awaiting a strategic development strategy and/or local government reorganisation to proceed. Whether the removal of the Duty to Cooperate assists housing delivery over both the medium and longer terms will be hard to decipher given that there are so many factors at play. Is it surprising that it is to be removed from a system that is in its twilight months? Perhaps not. Many in the system will have already met the requirement and those that have not might be helped over the line, where they were not going to meet the duty in any event and the plan might have failed altogether. It therefore remains to be seen what this will mean for the delivery of housing most acutely in constrained areas and areas of particularly high need. There remains a risk that the aim to stimulate local plan preparation might be achieved at the expense of housing delivery.
Footnotes
[1] https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-11-27/hcws1104
[2] The duty to cooperate was introduced into the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 by the Localism Act 2011 and places a legal duty on LPAs to work together on strategic matters that have cross-boundary impact such as local plan preparation.
[3] The new plan-making system covers plans prepared and adopted under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, as amended by the Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act 2023. The previous Conservative Government published a consultation in July 2023 covering proposals to streamline the plan making system. More detail on the proposals can be found here.
[4] The current Labour Government previously published their response to the consultation in February 2025. The latest updates represent the next stage of planning reform the Government is moving forward with that will coincide with further expected announcements in the coming weeks to stimulate housebuilding and help drive economic growth.
[5] See our analysis from 2023 projecting local plan coverage https://lichfields.uk/media/sfepoymv/timed-out_a-projection-of-future-local-plan-coverage-in-2025-under-prevailing-policy-conditions_jul-23.pdf
