Hull City Council has formally begun preparation of a new Hull Local Plan under England’s new local plan-making system.
The authority issued its Regulation 19 notice of intention to commence plan preparation in April and is now carrying out the statutory scoping stage. But one date needs care: Hull’s latest published timetable says the 30-month statutory timetable does not begin until Gateway 1 is passed, which the Council currently anticipates no earlier than 16 September 2026.
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Hull is using the new 2026 local plan system
The new local plan-making system came into force in England on 25 March 2026. It replaces the familiar legacy sequence of Regulation 18, Regulation 19, submission and examination with a new staged process built around three statutory gateways.
Hull is one of the authorities moving into that new system rather than continuing a saved legacy plan. The Council’s notice, issued under Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026, states that the replacement plan will be known as the Hull Local Plan and will cover the whole administrative area of Kingston upon Hull.
The Council also intends the plan to incorporate its minerals and waste planning policies.
The current stage is scoping, not Gateway 1
Hull began its Regulation 20 scoping consultation on 15 July 2026. The consultation seeks views and evidence on the matters the new plan should address and on how engagement should take place.
The subjects include:
- housing need and delivery
- economic growth and employment land
- regeneration priorities
- retail and town centres
- transport and connectivity
- flood risk and climate resilience
- green infrastructure and biodiversity
- heritage and the historic environment
- infrastructure and public services
- design quality and placemaking
The Council’s scoping notice states that representations must be received by 11:59pm on 25 August 2026. Its separate timetable page currently gives 26 August. Because the statutory notice is the formal consultation notice, anyone responding should work to the 25 August deadline unless Hull publishes a correction or extension.
When does the 30-month clock actually start?
Hull’s April notice originally said it expected to start the 30-month plan preparation process on 21 August 2026. The Council’s later and more detailed timetable clarifies the position.
Under the new system, the statutory 30-month timetable begins when the authority publishes its Gateway 1 self-assessment summary. Hull says the scoping consultation must be completed before that can happen and currently anticipates passing Gateway 1 no earlier than 16 September 2026.
This distinction is important. The Council has commenced preparation of the new plan, but the formal 30-month clock is not treated as running merely because the Regulation 19 notice has been published or because scoping is under way.
What does Gateway 1 test?
Gateway 1 is the first formal checkpoint. Before publishing its self-assessment, the authority must have undertaken a minimum preparation period and be able to demonstrate that the processes, evidence programme, resources and project management needed to prepare the plan are in place.
The aim is to reduce the risk of councils entering the statutory timetable before they are genuinely ready. Once the Gateway 1 summary is published, the authority moves into the 30-month programme towards submission.
Our main local plans guide explains the new Regulation 21 Gateway 1 stage alongside Gateways 2 and 3.
Hull’s published route to examination
Hull’s current programme sets out the following key milestones:
- Gateway 1 self-assessment from 16 September 2026
- consultation on proposed plan content and evidence from 1 June to 12 July 2027
- Gateway 2 on 10 September 2027
- consultation on the proposed submission plan from 22 February to 17 April 2028
- Gateway 3 on 3 August 2028
- submission for independent examination on 31 August 2028
- proposed consideration of adoption on 30 March 2029
The timetable is not simply an aspirational project plan. The new regulations require authorities to publish and keep their local plan timetable updated, and the gateway structure is intended to expose problems before final submission.
Why the new system matters to developers and landowners
The new process front-loads engagement and evidence. Anyone seeking an allocation, a settlement-boundary change or a particular policy approach should not assume that the best opportunity arrives only when the proposed submission plan is published.
For land promoters in Hull, the scoping and proposed-content stages are important opportunities to place site evidence, infrastructure information and delivery arguments before the Council while the strategy is still being formed.
An emerging local plan is not yet part of the statutory development plan, but emerging policies can become a material consideration as preparation advances. The weight given to them depends on the stage reached, unresolved objections and consistency with national policy.
What happens to the existing Hull Local Plan?
The existing adopted development plan remains relevant until it is replaced. Starting work on a new plan does not switch off current adopted policies or allocations.
Planning applications must therefore continue to be assessed against the operative development plan and current national decision-making policy, while giving an appropriate degree of weight to emerging material as the replacement Hull Local Plan progresses.
This is particularly important for applicants deciding whether to submit now, wait for a potential allocation or engage directly with the plan-making process.
Hull is an early practical test of the new regime
The Government designed the 2026 system to make plan preparation faster, more predictable and less likely to fail late at examination. Hull’s programme provides an early real-world example of how the new sequence operates: formal commencement notice, scoping, Gateway 1, content consultation, Gateway 2, proposed-plan consultation, Gateway 3 and submission.
For practitioners elsewhere in England, Hull is worth watching because many authorities will shortly have to make the same transition from the saved 2012 system to the 2026 Regulations.
See also our guides to the August 2026 NPPF, SHLAA and land availability evidence and settlement boundaries.
Primary sources
Hull Local Plan news published: 22nd August 2026
