Portsmouth City Council has opened the first formal scoping consultation for the Future Portsmouth Plan, the new-style Local Plan that will guide development in the city to 2045.
The Regulation 20 consultation opened on 29th September 2026 and closes at 11:59pm on 2nd November 2026. A call for sites is running over exactly the same period, giving landowners, developers and others an opportunity to put potential development sites forward.
The council describes the exercise as the “first stage in preparing the new Future Portsmouth Plan”. That matters because this is not a consultation on settled policies or a list of preferred allocations. Portsmouth is asking what the plan should address before those choices are made.
What Portsmouth is asking at Regulation 20
Regulation 20 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026 is the statutory scoping stage for a new-style Local Plan. It follows the council’s Regulation 19 notice of intention to commence plan preparation, published on 14th July 2026.
At this stage, the legislation requires the authority to invite relevant consultation bodies to comment on what the plan should contain and how they should be engaged as it is prepared. Anyone may make representations on those same matters.
Portsmouth’s scoping document therefore concentrates on the vision for the city, the issues the plan needs to tackle, its priorities and the future consultation process. It covers homes, the economy and employment, infrastructure, climate change and flooding, the natural environment, design, placemaking and heritage.
There are already some substantial questions behind those headings. The document says the latest standard-method housing need figure for Portsmouth is 1,022 homes a year. It asks how many homes can actually be delivered in a constrained island city, where density should rise, how affordable and specialist housing should be secured, and how mixed communities can be maintained.
On employment, the council wants to consider the amount and location of new floorspace, protect suitable employment premises and waterfront sites, and respond to changing city and district centres. Infrastructure questions include public transport, utilities, health and education, while flooding and climate change are unavoidable issues for a low-lying island city.
None of that is yet a final policy position. The scoping exercise is building the brief that later evidence, spatial choices and draft policies will need to answer.
Future Portsmouth Plan call for sites runs alongside scoping
The separate call for sites may be the most immediately practical part of this stage for landowners and developers.
Portsmouth says anyone can submit land with potential for development for consideration for allocation in the Future Portsmouth Plan. The deadline is again 11:59pm on 2nd November 2026.
Submitting a site does not allocate it, grant it planning status or mean the council considers development acceptable. The council’s scoping document is explicit that the spatial strategy and site allocations “have not yet been prepared”. Instead, the call for sites will feed into work on the future spatial strategy and potential allocations, which will be consulted on later.
That distinction is important. A site promoted now may still have to survive evidence on deliverability, infrastructure, flooding, environmental constraints, design and the wider spatial strategy before it appears in any proposed allocation.
Why Portsmouth now has two plans moving at once
The Future Portsmouth Plan should not be confused with the Portsmouth Local Plan to 2040, which is already well advanced under the legacy plan-making system.
Portsmouth’s adopted Portsmouth Plan dates from 2012. The replacement Portsmouth Local Plan to 2040 is currently at examination and the council says it is likely to be adopted in early 2027. If adopted, that plan will remain in force while the Future Portsmouth Plan is prepared.
The overlap exists because the 2026 Local Planning Regulations introduced a new plan-making system. Portsmouth is therefore continuing the advanced 2040 plan while also starting the new-style plan that will take the city’s planning framework forward to 2045.
For anyone trying to understand the regulation numbers, this is where confusion can creep in. Regulation 20 under the new 2026 system is the early scoping consultation. It is not the same stage as Regulation 20 under the old 2012 system. Planning Geek’s guide to the old and new Local Plan systems explains the sequence.
The 30-month timetable starts later
Opening the scoping consultation does not itself start the Government’s 30-month Local Plan timetable.
Government guidance says the formal 30-month preparation period for this Portsmouth plan begins at Gateway 1. Portsmouth’s current timetable shows the Gateway 1 self-assessment summary being published on 17th December 2026.
After that, the council currently expects a consultation on proposed Portsmouth plan content and evidence in May and June 2027, Gateway 2 in December 2027, consultation on the proposed Local Plan in March and April 2028, Gateway 3 in July 2028 and submission to the Secretary of State in August 2028.
Adoption is currently targeted for April 2029. The council says the timetable will be reviewed at least monthly, so those later dates should be treated as the current programme rather than fixed promises.
How to respond before 2nd November
The Regulation 20 consultation and the call for sites both close at 11:59pm on Monday 2nd November 2026.
The council’s Future Portsmouth Plan consultation page contains the scoping document and response form. Anyone promoting land should use the separate call for sites form and provide enough information for the council to understand the site and the development being suggested.
For people used to joining a Local Plan process once draft policies or allocations appear, this stage comes earlier. It is the point to identify an issue, evidence gap or site before the plan’s spatial strategy and detailed content are settled.
If a proposed development or landholding could be affected by the Future Portsmouth Plan, Planning Geek can help with a focused planning response or site promotion. Tell us about the site and what you are trying to achieve.
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