Local Plans
(asked on 5th November 2021) - View Source
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will provide (a) details and (b) the number of local plans that have been halted by the Planning Inspectorate in each year since 2010.
Since 2011, 55 local plan Development Plan Documents (DPDs) have been withdrawn by the local authority, or been found unsound or legally non-compliant by an Inspector, following:
- Identification of serious soundness problems; or
- Failure of the Duty to Cooperate.
A breakdown by year is provided below:
Year | Number of local plan DPDs |
2011 | 6 |
2012 | 4 |
2013 | 15 |
2014 | 12 |
2015 | 8 |
2016 | 0 |
2017 | 2 |
2018 | 1 |
2019 | 0 |
2020 | 6 |
2021 (up to 31 October) | 1 |
Total | 55 |
This constitutes 9% of all DPDs examined during this period, with 639 DPDs (91%) found sound subject to modifications.
Most of the plans withdrawn or found unsound or legally non-compliant, 45 out of the 55, were examined during the period 2011-2016. The reduction in the last 5 years has resulted from a letter from the then Secretary of State in 2015, asking that Inspectors work pragmatically with LPAs to find plans sound.