Neighbourhood Planning

Reviewing a Neighbourhood Plan

If your adopted Neighbourhood Plan is 3 to 5 years old, some of the policies may not worked as well as your community wished or perhaps parts of the Plan have been superseded by the adoption of the Local Plan in 2019, then it may be time to consider a review.

There are 3 types of modification which can be made to a neighbourhood plan or order. The process will depend on the degree of change which the modification involves:

• Minor (non-material) modifications to a neighbourhood plan or order are those which would not materially affect the policies in the plan or permission granted by the order. These may include correcting errors, such as a reference to a supporting document, and would not require examination or a referendum. This would not result in the ‘remaking’ of the neighbourhood plan and therefore the adoption/made date of the original plan would still apply.   

• Material modifications which do not change the nature of the plan or order would require examination but not a referendum. This might, for example, entail the addition of a design code that builds on a pre-existing design policy, or the addition of a site or sites which, subject to the decision of the independent examiner, are not so significant or substantial as to change the nature of the plan.

• Material modifications which do change the nature of the plan or order would require examination and a referendum. This might, for example, involve allocating significant new sites for development.

We suggest the following as useful first actions:

1. Think about where the adopted Plan is referencing old documents (Core Strategy, NPPF 2012 etc.). The Local Plan 2011 to 2031 should be referenced along with the latest version of the NPPF.
2. Think about other matters that have changed e.g. housing developments have been commenced/completed. Again, these alterations can be made as matters of fact.

These are essentially desk-based exercises that can be completed without consultation, examination or referendum. If these amendments are sufficient then the plan can be updated by the LPA without consultation, examination or referendum. It will then replace the existing Plan. 

If a group wish to make modifications that do materially affect the policies in the neighbourhood plan, the plan will need to go through the later stages of the statutory process, from pre-submission consultation (Regulation 14) onwards, although a referendum may not be required with the following additional requirements:

• the qualifying body must (at the pre-submission publicity and consultation stage and when the modified plan is submitted to the local planning authority) state whether they believe that the modifications are so significant or substantial as to change the nature of the plan and give reasons
• the local planning authority must (when sending the modified plan to the independent examiner) state whether they believe that the modifications are so significant or substantial as to change the nature of the plan and give reasons. The local planning authority must also submit a copy of the original plan to the independent examiner
• the qualifying body must decide whether to proceed with the examination after the examiner has decided whether the modifications proposed change the nature of the plan

Whether modifications change the nature of the plan is a decision for the independent examiner. The examiner will consider the nature of the existing plan, alongside representations and the statements on the matter made by the qualifying body and the local planning authority.

Where material modifications do not change the nature of the plan (and the examiner finds that the proposal meets the basic conditions, or would with further modifications) a referendum is not required.

It is worth noting that the ‘made’ date for a Plan that has been subject to minor (non material) modifications will remain unchanged, although the review date is shown in the Councils documentation and should be noted in the reviewed Plan for clarity. A Plan reviewed with minor (non material ) modifications will not benefit from the protection that paragraph 14 (a) of the NPPF provides to ‘made’ Plans less than 5 years (NPPF Dec 2023) should the five year supply of housing for the LPA fall below the 5 year threshold.

Paragraph 14(a) sets out that the protection can apply where the neighbourhood plan became part of the development plan 5 years or less before the date on which the decision is made. This includes circumstances in which the neighbourhood plan is updated by way of making a material modification to the plan, (provided the relevant criteria continue to be met including that the neighbourhood plan contains policies and allocations that meet the identified housing requirement for the neighbourhood area). In updating the neighbourhood plan, it will be important to ensure that sites identified for years 1-5 are deliverable in line with paragraph 67 and 68 of the National Planning Policy Framework.

NPPF Dec 2023 states:

 In situations where the presumption (at paragraph 11(d)) applies to applications involving the provision of housing, the adverse impact of allowing development that conflicts with the neighbourhood plan is likely to significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, provided the following apply  :

a) the neighbourhood plan became part of the development plan five years or less before the date on which the decision is made; and

b) the neighbourhood plan contains policies and allocations to meet its identified housing requirement (see paragraphs 67-68).

footnote: This includes, for applications involving the provision of housing, situations where: (a) the local planning authority cannot demonstrate a 5 year supply (or a 4 year supply), if applicable, as set out in paragraph 226 of deliverable housing sites (with a buffer, if applicable, as set out in paragraph 77 and does not benefit from the provisions of paragraph 76; or (b) where the Housing Delivery Test indicates that the delivery of housing was below 75% of the housing requirement over the previous 3 years

Further considerations for reviewing a Plan

Additionally, we suggest considering each of the policies of the Plan. Are there any that did not work as intended, or are there policy areas that are now redundant or others that you want to include?

If additional policies or changes of policy are required, does the evidence base need to be updated?

If  more substantial changes are needed to the Plan then the Neighbourhood Planning Group will have to undertake a consultation exercise to seek the communities view on what is required and how changes should be included in the Plan. The process is essentially the same as the NDP process previously used, but there is an additional requirement to provide a statement by the Qualifying Body at Regulation 14 consultation stage stating which level of changes the new Plan triggers and to submit that statement to the LPA with the revised Plan and other statutory documentation.

The reviewed Plan is submitted to HDC who then deal with the examination and referendum, if required, depending on whether the changes alter the nature of the plan.

NDP groups do not need to submit a new Neighbourhood Area plan. The designation is still relevant, as is the old Neighbourhood Plan until it is superseded. The Parish Council is still the Qualifying body (QB) and a dialogue with the District Council at an early stage will help ensure that the Plan review runs smoothly.

Grant Funding for Reviews of Neighbourhood Plans

Grants are still available for reviewing NDPs. We suggest having a think about what level of review is required before applying for a grant as you will need to justify the application. Details of grants can be found on the link below

https://neighbourhoodplanning.org/about/grant-funding/

funding is available for one review in any 5 year period and has been confirmed for the period April 2023 to March 24.The deadline for applications in 2023/24 is 26 January 2024 and all grant monies received in the period need to be spent before 31 March 2024.