ONH's regular Guesswork to Gameplan seminars have been designed to give you the opportunity to step back, review the latest changes in planning, ask questions, and evolve your approach to planning to suit your council area. Our next online seminar, Guesswork to Game Plan 2026: Planning for Town and Parish Councils, is on 22nd October at 11.00am.

We have now seen the first wave of ‘Regulation 20’ scoping consultations undertaken by local planning authorities producing their Local Plans under the new system. Given the variety of efforts to publicise, we have read as many as we have found, and can already note the huge variety in consultations... ...Here, they are remarkably consistent: only a very small number set out how the LPA intends neighbourhood plans to complement their Local Plans.

Breaking with tradition, and rumours that have abounded for months, the new version of the NPPF was published on 17th August 2026. As expected, the changes between the draft version first published in December 2025 are not particularly substantial, but any community who has not yet got to grips with the proposed changes in the intervening period needs to know that they must do so now, as the new NPPF applies to decision making straight away.

The National Association of Local Councils has launched a survey for the 2,850 parish and town councils in England that are currently leading and managing neighbourhood plans. The findings will directly help NALC inform their policy work and engagement with government on the future of neighbourhood planning.

Local plans are changing. Join our seminar in July on the reforms, devolution, neighbourhood plans & more for parishes and towns — plus live Q&A. The local plan system has changed fundamentally. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 introduced a new four-stage plan-making process that every local planning authority in England must now follow — and for the first time, the rules governing when and how you can have your say are written clearly into statute.

MHCLG has published its response to the 2023 consultation on the proposals to introduce Environmental Outcome Reports (EOR) to replace Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEA). It also published its roadmap to deliver the new system by the end of next year. The application of SEA to neighbourhood plans has been problematic from the outset. With little guidance to plan makers or to LPAs on how to go about this in the early days, and with so little funding available, developer

All planning appeals relating to applications submitted on or after 1st April 2026 follow a new procedure. For town and parish councils, the most important thing to understand is this: under the new system, your opportunity to influence a planning appeal is almost entirely at the application stage, not the appeal stage. May saw the latest update to information about this change, with a new procedural guide for appeals published by MHCLG.

Although they may not advertise it, areas with the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) in place are able to use the 'neighbourhood' part of that funding towards anything that will 'address the demands' that development places on an area.

Blink and you’d have missed them but MHCLG published ten ‘new’ guidance notes on neighbourhood planning between 31 March and mid-May. We say ‘new’ but the majority of the content has been taken off the now defunct Locality neighbourhood plan support programme website.

Buried deep in the Levelling Up & Regeneration Act 2023 and changes to neighbourhood planning basic conditions: replacing general conformity is a new condition that requires only that the neighbourhood plan will not result in less housing development taking place in its area than if it was not made. Nothing about conformity with any other housing or non-housing policy, strategic or otherwise.

These sub-regional strategies will agree housing needs, co-ordinate strategic infrastructure and shape economic development and environmental improvement over 20 years. They will be prepared by groups of planning authorities (LPA), many of which will be new with local government reorganisation. Whilst the Regulations for their preparation are expected later in the summer, the Government is keen for LPAs to prepare for starting their SDSs in advance, with an expectation that t

A few days ago, the Government published its new procedural guide for how planning appeals will work from 1 April. It’s fair to say that the consequences for ‘interested parties’ like town and parish councils and community groups will be profound and will require them to reorganise how they comment on planning applications.

The new draft NPPF and Planning Reform documents have arrived earlier than expected. There’s much to digest on behalf of our town and parish clients, but headlines include: neighbourhood plans are here to stay, national decision making policies, development around train stations, and settlement boundary policies are all now factors to consider

Town and Parish Councils: Have you considered planning in your 2026/2027 budget? After a turbulent planning year, does your Council have the right resources available to support them through more planning changes? How can you prepare for the future now?

The Government has published a suite of ‘working papers’ on aspects of its planning reform proposals. We take a look at each to come to a view on how well they have understood the issues and how well their proposals might work, from a local community perspective.

ONH have travelled the country throughout June delivering interactive Q&As and hands on workshops about the latest changes to planning and the impact on town and parish councils.

The news that there will be no new neighbourhood plan programme is disappointing but not unexpected.

The Government published its ‘ English Devolution White Paper ’ last December. As a ‘ White Paper’ its contents are not published for...

Which NPPF Dec 2024 changes impact on neighbourhood plans? How can town and parish councils prepare for the changes?

You may have read some rather dismissive comments on planningblogs about neighbourhood plans recently. Some commentators ask what is the...