England has a new system for making local plans. Maps have responded with professional composure, although several are understood to be lying flat in a dark room while waiting for somebody to explain which version of the future they are expected to display.
Regulations signed into law this week come into force on 25 March and replace the existing 2012 planning regulations. Councils will receive a new route for preparing plans, while the previous route remains available for plans submitted by 31 December 2026. This is less a clean transition than an administrative household where nobody is allowed to throw anything away.
The arrangement is called dual running. It sounds energetic, but it really means England can operate two planning systems at once and describe the resulting pile of documents as flexibility. Some authorities may complete eligible older plans while others use the new approach, giving every spreadsheet the thrilling possibility of becoming historically significant.
Five statutory instruments have been laid in Parliament, alongside a roadmap for further guidance during 2026. The roadmap will cover timetables, data standards and community engagement. Thus the future will arrive in carefully labelled parcels, each containing instructions about the parcel that should arrive next.
Community engagement remains central, which means residents may gather around a large map and identify the field they believed was safe from development. Someone will then point to a colour that has acquired the confidence of a settled decision. There may be a biscuit. Its legal status is not yet clear, but it has probably been mentioned in a meeting.
The Planning Inspectorate will take a central role from Gateway Two onwards, with a procedure guide due for plans prepared and examined under the new system. Gateway Two sounds like an airport lounge where the announcement has been delayed since 2012. It is actually a stage in the process, although the map may still be asked to prove it has completed the previous one.
There is a serious purpose beneath the comedy. Local plans guide decisions about places, services and growth, and clearer routes and standards could make complicated work easier for councils. They might even prevent somebody inventing a new colour code at 4.55pm because the approved one has vanished into a folder called final final.
For now, England has a new planning system, an older planning system and a roadmap explaining how more explanations will arrive. The maps are resting until the government publishes guidance on whether they are allowed back on the wall.
Source: Planning Inspectorate and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
