LOCAL DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORK THE NEW PLANNING POLICY REGIME

2010-05-12 09:15:57

The new local planning policy regime known as the local development framework (LDF) was envisaged to provide a more responsive and consultation led planning policy landscape ensuring that all parties, developers, local authorities and the general public would benefit from a speedier, more open and accountable system. The LDF’s are set to replace the traditional unitary development plans (UDP’s) in all the local authorities in England, originally these were planned to take over in 2009, however due to the extra consultative burden placed on local authorities by the new system it now looks as though most will only complete the process by 2013. This makes a mockery of the original goals of the change and is leading to the mix and match of old UDP policies and some newer supplementary planning documents (SPD’s), clearly this is not an ideal background in which to deal with the challenges which the recession brings, however we look forward to taking advantage of the planning opportunities which this situation continues to give us.