Local Plans: The Examination Process and the Role of the Planning Inspectorate

The previous Conservative UK Government set about reform of the local planning process and the role of the Planning Inspectorate in the scrutiny of local plans. The current Labour Government has continued these reforms. On the 30th July, 2024, just after the General Election, Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister of State for Housing, wrote to Paul Morrison, Chief Executive of The Planning Inspectorate (please see a copy of the letter here), regarding, amongst other things, the length of time which local plan examinations have taken to complete by planning inspectors, arguing that it is currently too long.

Pragmatism

As the Minister’s letter outlined, ‘the length of examinations has been increasing, from 65 weeks on average in 2016 to 134 weeks in 2022’. This delay is despite the fact that Section 20 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 provides that a local planning authority must not submit a local plan unless they have complied with relevant legislative requirements, and they think the plan is ready for independent examination by a planning inspector, a process meant to avoid to delays. With this compliance procedure in place by the local authority before submission, it is hard to explain the doubling of the time taken by inspectors in their scrutiny.

The July 2024 letter sets out the UK Government’s expectations as to how plan examinations should be conducted, and how so-called ‘pragmatism’ should be applied to this process by examining inspectors, and its limits. The letter re-iterates that LPAs must not submit local plans unless they think they are ready for independent examination. Furthermore, it indicates that Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) should not therefore submit deficient plans believing that inspectors will use significant time and resource during examinations to ‘fix’ them and make them ‘sound’ – which is a major cause of the doubling in time taken by inspectors in their examinations currently.

Revised housing targets

Nonetheless, the examination process of local plans by inspectors remains an important part of the planning system, providing crucial oversight, and ensures for a more robust response to regional planning requirements and needs. The revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) released by the UK Government last December outlines how the planning system should be led by the relevant local plan and informed by it. Newly revised housing targets imposed by central government for local authorities to follow will mean further local plan revision in the future also as LPAs look again at their allocated sites and areas of strategic importance. New centralised housing targets will also mean a revision of the Five-Year Housing Land Supply (FYHLS) figures for each local authority, which will come under increased scrutiny by planning inspectors now that the UK Government has a five-year commitment for the delivery of 1.5 million homes in England over the term of the current Parliament.

Same, but not the same

However, as it currently stands, the different steps of the local plan examination process remain the same, albeit with the added pressure of the Housing Minister’s request for it to be faster and more efficient, as outlined in the letter. The LPA submits their updated local plan to the Secretary of State for Housing, (currently The Rt Hon Angela Rayner MP), who is responsible for appointing a planning inspector to manage the local plan process and launch an independent examination of the document. The examination will follow procedures relating to the four tests of ‘soundness’ (which are that the plan is positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy), with an ultimate determination by the inspector on whether the local plan is fit for purpose.

It should be noted that some planning inspectors are starting to get tougher on the time scales for the delivery of local plans by LPAs. If a six-month extension to the delivery of a local plan to the Secretary of State is deemed necessary by a LPA, this must first be approved by a planning inspector. As the UK Government guidance, Local Plans: the examination process (2025, please see a copy of the document here), outlines, ‘pragmatism should only be used in examinations where it is likely that a plan is capable of being found sound with limited additional work to address soundness issues’.

Programme officer

When a local plan is submitted, the LPA is responsible for appointing a programme officer and for the processing of any personal data during the examination. The role of the programme officer is to provide administrative support to the examination. The programme officer also provides a channel for all communications between the inspector and the LPA and other participants, and this role will become more important as LPAs look to meet the standards of the new guidance on ‘pragmatism’ outlined in the Minister’s letter. With significant reforms to the planning system in England already under way, reform to the different stages of the examination process undertaken by planning inspectors can not be ruled out in the future.