Local Plans

Local Plans set out a framework for the future development of an area, addressing needs and opportunities in relation to housing, the economy and infrastructure – as well as being a basis for safeguarding the environment and securing good design.

Local Plans also help to guide decisions about individual development proposals, as they are the starting-point for considering whether planning applications can be approved. It is important for all local authorities to have an up to date plan in place to positively guide development decisions.

Bromley Council does not as yet have an up to date Local Plan in place. A report to the Council’s Development Control Committee on the 11 July 2016 endorsed a draft Local Plan, and this was confirmed at the Executive meeting on 20 July 2016. Consultation took place at the end of 2016.

The response to this consultation was reported to Development Control Committee on 12 June 2017 and to the council’s Executive on the 20 June, seeking agreement to ask Full Council for approval to submit the Draft Local Plan to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for examination. The Full Council at its meeting on 26 June 2017 approved the Draft Local Plan for submission to the Secretary of State. We now await a date for the examination which will be led by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS).

If you would like to read more about Local Plans, you may be interested to read the letter from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (who has responsibility for planning matters) to the Chief Executive of the Planning Inspectorate. The letter sets out the government’s current position on examining local plans and links to wider measures that the government says it will be taking to improve plan making.