Bristol Local Plan work has entered a slightly surreal phase: the city’s replacement plan for 2022–2040 is still being examined, but Bristol has already formally started the next Local Plan, looking ahead to 2045.
It sounds like somebody has turned to the next chapter before finishing the current one. In reality, Bristol is one of the clearest early examples of England’s new 2026 plan-making system running alongside the old system during the transition.
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The Bristol Local Plan 2022–2040 is still at examination
Bristol’s current replacement Local Plan was agreed for publication by Full Council on 31 October 2023. Representations ran from 21 November 2023 to 26 January 2024 and the plan was submitted to the Secretary of State on 25 April 2024.
It has not yet been adopted. The independent examination has been running since 2024, with hearing sessions during 2025 and a Main Modifications consultation from 27 April to 12 June 2026.
On 29 July 2026 the council sent the Inspectors the consultation responses, summaries of the main issues and its views on whether further changes were needed. The Inspectors are now considering that material and are not inviting further correspondence on it.
Bristol still says the emerging 2022–2040 plan is at an advanced stage of examination and expects adoption in late 2026. That remains an expectation rather than a guaranteed date, because the Inspectors still have to complete their work.
So why is Bristol writing another Local Plan already?
Because the rules have changed underneath it.
England is currently operating two plan-making systems in parallel. Advanced plans can continue under the legacy route, while authorities are also moving into the new system introduced under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act changes and the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026.
The Government specifically placed Bristol on the list of authorities required to publish a notice of intention to start a new-system plan by 30 June 2026 and to publish its Gateway 1 self-assessment by 31 October 2026. The national rollout guidance explains that this applies to certain plans submitted by 12 March 2025 where the submitted housing requirement met less than 80% of the December 2024 standard-method local housing need and no operative spatial development strategy applied.
So Bristol is not admitting that its 2040 plan is obsolete before adoption. It is complying with the transition to a new plan-making regime while the existing examination is allowed to finish under the legacy system.
Our guides to Local Plans and the development plan explain why up-to-date plans matter when planning applications are decided.
The new timetable starts now and runs to 2029
Bristol’s latest timetable was updated on 30 August 2026. Importantly, that update changed the scoping consultation dates from 7–28 September to 9–30 September 2026.
The current programme is:
- 30 June 2026: notice of intention to commence plan-making published
- 9–30 September 2026: scoping consultation
- 31 October 2026: Gateway 1 self-assessment published
- 1 December 2026–7 February 2027: consultation on proposed plan content and evidence
- 1 August 2027: Gateway 2 advice sought
- 1 January–1 March 2028: consultation on the proposed Local Plan
- 1 July 2028: Gateway 3 advice sought
- 2 October 2028: proposed submission for independent examination
- 30 April 2029: proposed adoption
The council says the timetable will be reviewed monthly, so those dates should be treated as the current programme rather than carved into stone.
What are the three new Local Plan gateways?
The new system is designed around a more structured timetable with three checkpoints. The Planning Inspectorate’s procedural guide gives the clearest plain-English sequence.
Gateway 1 is an early self-assessment by the council. It checks whether the authority is ready to move into the formal 30-month plan preparation period. Publishing the Gateway 1 self-assessment starts that 30-month clock.
Gateway 2 comes after consultation on proposed plan content and evidence, but before consultation on the proposed plan itself. An Inspector acting as gateway assessor gives observations and advice, including on possible soundness issues, evidence and progress towards the statutory requirements.
Gateway 3 comes after the final mandatory consultation and just before submission. It checks whether the proposed plan has met prescribed requirements and is practically ready to go into examination.
After that comes the independent examination and, if the plan gets through that process, adoption.
Why the 30-month clock matters
The Government describes Gateway 1 as the start of a 30-month plan-making timetable. For Bristol, the current target is Gateway 1 on 31 October 2026 and adoption on 30 April 2029, which is exactly the sort of disciplined end-to-end programme the new system is intended to create.
That does not mean every planning issue has to be invented and solved from scratch inside 30 months. Councils are expected to prepare before Gateway 1, which is why notice, scoping, evidence gathering and early engagement matter.
It also explains the odd overlap we can see in Bristol. Waiting until the 2022–2040 plan was adopted and then taking a long breather would not fit the new national timetable.
What happens during Bristol’s September scoping stage?
Scoping is deliberately early. The policies are not yet fixed and the plan has not reached the point where everybody is arguing over polished wording line by line.
The Planning Inspectorate describes scoping as inviting feedback from stakeholders on how the council should engage and what the plan should contain. That makes this a useful point for developers, landowners, residents, community groups and infrastructure providers to identify the strategic issues the plan will need to grapple with.
For a landowner or developer, this is the time to watch how the council frames growth, housing need, site selection, infrastructure and evidence. Bristol’s timetable does not itself announce a call for sites, so nobody should assume one is open simply because scoping is starting. But the new process expects site and evidence work to develop early, and waiting until the final consultation can leave far less room to influence the strategy.
For residents and community groups, the same principle works the other way. Early evidence about infrastructure, design, environmental constraints and the way places function can be much more useful before the strategy hardens.
What happens to the 2040 plan?
It carries on.
Government guidance is explicit that the legacy and new systems are running in parallel during the transition. A plan must follow the legal requirements of the system under which it is being prepared from start to finish.
So the 2022–2040 plan remains in its legacy examination. If it is found sound with any necessary modifications and adopted, it will become part of Bristol’s statutory development plan while the 2045 plan is prepared under the new system.
The 2045 plan will eventually supersede it. Bristol’s own timetable says exactly that.
Where does the August 2026 NPPF fit in?
The current National Planning Policy Framework was published on 17 August 2026. Bristol’s new-system plan will therefore be prepared in the current national policy environment, including the latest approach to housing and plan-making.
That does not mean the arrival of the August NPPF simply restarts the older examination. Transitional arrangements govern the legacy plan, while the new 2045 plan starts with the benefit, or perhaps the challenge, of current policy from the outset.
We have a detailed comparison of the 2024 and 2026 NPPF and a separate NPPF timeline.
Why Bristol is worth watching
Bristol is a useful live example of the new regime because the transition is visible in real time. One plan is nearing the end of an old-style examination while the next begins a new-style timetable only weeks later.
For practitioners, the lesson is simple: the new Local Plan process gives much more structure to the early stages, and influence starts before the proposed plan appears. Gateway 1 is not the beginning of thinking about the plan. It is the point at which the authority says it is ready to run the 30-month process.
And yes, for a little while Bristol really will be working on two replacement Local Plans at once. Planning has finally found a way to make having one Local Plan seem straightforward.
Primary sources: Bristol Local Plan 2045 timetable; Bristol Local Plan 2022–2040 examination; Government rollout of the new Local Plan system; Planning Inspectorate gateway and examination procedure
Bristol Local Plan News Post Created: 31st August 2026
