Statement from Joint Local Plan Partnership Board

24 January 2025

Since January 2024, the Joint Local Plan Partnership Board has been considering the implications of the national planning reforms for its next steps in the local plan. As is well documented, there has been an unprecedented period of uncertainty surrounding these reforms, dating at least as far back as the Planning White Paper of 2020.

The election of a new government in July 2024 has seen a continuation of change, with a commitment to planning reform to build 1.5 million new homes as a central plank of it mission to ‘kickstart economic growth’. Within the last few weeks, we have seen the publication of a new National Planning Policy Framework, with a stronger focus on housing delivery, a new standard method for calculating local housing need which radically increases the housing requirement for our areas, and a Devolution White Paper which speaks of significant local government reorganisation and a new framework of strategic planning.

When the three councils agreed to work together on a Joint Local Plan in 2016 the context was entirely different. So, notwithstanding that the Joint Local Plan is widely regarded as an exemplar of joint strategic planning, delivering a sound planning framework for Plymouth, South Hams and West Devon, we felt we needed time to reflect on these changes before committing to a new Joint Local Plan. The structure of local planning is such an important and sensitive matter, and it is only right and proper that each council consider what is in the best interests of the communities they serve in determining the best approach for moving forward.

The three councils have now had the chance to do this reflection, and the following way forward is now proposed.

1. The next iteration of local plan making for the JLP area will not be as a joint local plan covering Plymouth, South Hams and West Devon. Instead, Plymouth City Council will work on a new local plan based on the city’s administrative boundaries;
2. That these next iterations are likely to formally commence in early 2026, once the government has published its new local plan regulations (currently proposed to happen in autumn 2025);
3. That the three councils will continue to collaborate on strategic spatial planning for the wider area, including through continuing to monitor and implement the current Joint Local Plan until such a time as it is replaced by new plans, and also in working together on cross boundary issues and other strategic matters of shared interest to ensure a joined up approach;
4. Within the context of the wider devolution agenda, that the three councils will seek wider strategic conversations in Devon and Cornwall to consider how best to collectively plan at a strategic level for the significant amount of housing delivery and growth that is required.

Given the scale of this agenda, the Joint Local Plan Partnership Board will continue to meet to provide the governance needed for implementing and monitoring the existing Joint Local Plan, and a basis for strategic conversations around the future planning of each of the three areas, including opportunities for continued collaborative working. All three councils agree that the significant benefits of joint working over the last 9 years are too valuable to be lost, and this approach will help ensure that productive joint working continues in our area for at least the next plan period.