Plan making reform and the 30 month local plan timetable
The 2023 Act rebuilds local plan preparation around gateway assessments and a shorter statutory timetable. Whether the provisions are in force depends on regulations and updated guidance, so check the current position before advising on programme.
Plan making reform under the 2023 Act replaces a system in which almost every question is settled at examination with one in which the plan is tested at intervals as it is prepared. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 provides the framework: new-style local plans with a defined scope, gateway assessments during preparation, national development management policies carrying generic national content, and a shorter overall timetable that the reform programme describes as around thirty months from start to adoption.
As at September 2026, how much of that is in force for any given authority depends on regulations, transitional arrangements and updated national guidance rather than on the Act alone. Verify the position on gov.uk before you build a promotion programme around a date.
What the 2023 Act changes about plan preparation
Four structural changes matter to anyone working with plans.
The scope of a local plan narrows. Plans are intended to deal with locally specific matters, with generic national policy moved into national development management policies that apply directly. That should shorten plans and remove the copying out of national text that swells current documents.
Preparation becomes staged. Rather than a single examination testing soundness at the end, the authority passes through assessment points during preparation, with the intention that problems surface while they can still be fixed without a long delay.
The duty to cooperate is replaced by an alignment policy dealing with cross-boundary matters, which changes how strategic questions between neighbouring authorities are handled.
And environmental assessment is intended to move from strategic environmental assessment and sustainability appraisal to environmental outcomes reports, again subject to regulations. The wider plan reform provisions of the 2023 Act covers the surrounding changes to plan content and to supplementary plans.
Gateway assessments and the new stages
The gateway concept is the part practitioners ask about most. The intention is a small number of checkpoints, each looking at whether the plan is on track before the authority spends further money and time:
- an early gateway looking at the project plan, the scope of the evidence base and the timetable
- a mid-preparation gateway looking at whether the evidence supports the emerging strategy
- a late gateway before submission, checking readiness for examination
Assessment is carried out independently of the authority, drawing on the Planning Inspectorate's resource. The practical consequence for promoters is that the moments at which evidence can influence the plan multiply, and each of them comes earlier than examination.
That changes tactics. Under the current system a promoter can hold back a technical critique for the hearing sessions. Under a gateway system, an evidence gap raised early may be fixed by the authority rather than left to be exploited, which favours promoting the positive case for a site over keeping powder dry.
The intended 30 month timetable
Thirty months is the design target for the whole process, from the start of preparation to adoption. Compare that with current practice, where plan preparation commonly runs well beyond five years from initial evidence gathering to adoption, and the ambition is clear.
Where the time is supposed to come from: a narrower plan scope, a fixed evidence base rather than an expanding one, digital consultation and standardised data, examination on a defined set of issues rather than an open-ended one, and earlier resolution of soundness problems at the gateways.
Treat the figure with appropriate caution. It is a programme design rather than a statutory guarantee, and authority capacity, local politics and the availability of independent assessors will all bear on delivery. What is more useful than the headline number is each authority's own published local development scheme, which has to set out its intended timetable and which is the document a promoter can hold the authority to.
Transitional arrangements for plans in progress
This is where most immediate advice sits. The transitional arrangements determine whether a plan being prepared now continues under the current system, usually by reference to how far it has progressed by a stated date, or whether it has to be prepared afresh under the new one.
Practical steps for a promoter or an agent:
- Read the authority's local development scheme and its latest published timetable.
- Establish which system the emerging plan is being prepared under, and on what basis.
- Check whether a submission deadline under the current system is being targeted, because that compresses everything.
- Watch for a decision to abandon a plan and restart, which resets the evidence base and reopens site selection.
- Keep the site's technical evidence current, since surveys age and a restart can leave a promoter with a two-year-old ecology report.
An authority racing to submit under the current system behaves differently from one that has accepted a restart. The first resists changes to the strategy. The second is open to argument about site selection for a while, then closes again.
Illustrative example: a promoter holds an option on a 12-hectare site adjoining a market town, not currently allocated. The authority's timetable shows submission of a plan under the current system next year, with the site rejected at the site assessment stage on landscape grounds. The useful work is a landscape and visual appraisal addressing the specific reason for rejection, submitted to the authority's evidence base, plus a representation at the next consultation. If the plan is then abandoned and restarted, that evidence carries into the new process rather than being wasted. Illustrative only.
Effect on site promotion and call for sites
Under either system the fundamentals do not change. A site needs to be available, suitable and achievable, and the promoter needs evidence on access, flood risk, ecology, heritage and deliverability. What changes is when that evidence bites.
With staged assessment, the call for sites and the authority's site assessment methodology become more important than the hearing sessions. Getting a site into the evidence base with a clean technical answer to the obvious objection is worth more than a well-argued statement of case two years later.
Where national policy is in flux, statements of government intention carry weight in the meantime, and the weight written ministerial statements carry is worth understanding before relying on one. The planning law timeline is the place to follow how reform is landing.
What is in force, and the as at date
As at September 2026, the safe formulation for advice is this. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 contains the plan-making framework. Its operation depends on regulations being made, on national development management policies being brought into force, and on updated national guidance. Further legislation and consultation have continued since the Act received royal assent, so check what is in force and the latest guidance on gov.uk at the time of writing rather than relying on a summary.
For anyone advising a client, the honest position is that the direction is settled and the timing is not. Programme on the current system, keep evidence live, and re-read the authority's timetable each quarter. Where the promotion needs a document, a Planning Statement drafted against the adopted plan and the current Framework is the starting point, reviewed before it goes anywhere.
This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.
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Frequently asked questions
What is a gateway assessment?
A checkpoint during plan preparation at which the plan is assessed for readiness before the authority proceeds to the next stage, rather than everything being tested at examination. The intention is to catch evidence and procedural problems early, when they can still be fixed without a delay measured in years.
Is the 30 month timetable a legal deadline?
It is the timescale the reform is designed around rather than a duty that voids a plan if missed. The detail sits in regulations and guidance rather than on the face of the Act, so check the current regulations and any published implementation timetable before treating it as a fixed date for a specific authority.
What happens to plans already in preparation?
Transitional arrangements determine whether a plan continues under the current system or has to be prepared under the new one, generally by reference to how far it has progressed by a cut-off date. Those arrangements have moved more than once, which is why the authority's own published timetable is the document to read.
Do national development management policies replace local policies?
They are intended to carry the generic national policy that local plans currently repeat, leaving plans to deal with local matters. Where they conflict with a plan policy, the national policy is intended to prevail. Until they are made and brought into force, local plans continue to carry that content.
How should promoters respond in the meantime?
Keep promoting against the current system while tracking the authority's timetable. Call for sites submissions, evidence on deliverability and engagement with the authority's evidence base still matter under either system, and a site with a clean technical evidence base is easier to defend at a gateway than one relying on assertion.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.