The North East Lincolnshire Local Plan Regulation 19 consultation is now open after the council launched it on 30th September, the deadline imposed by Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook just five days earlier.
The six-week consultation runs until 11:59 pm on 12th November 2026. It is the final public consultation before the plan is submitted for independent examination, and representations at this stage focus on legal compliance and soundness.
Opening the consultation on deadline day means North East Lincolnshire Council has complied with the first key requirement of the ministerial direction. The same direction still requires the Local Plan to be submitted by 31st December 2026, with monthly progress reports to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and no step to withdraw the plan.
North East Lincolnshire Local Plan consultation is now live
North East Lincolnshire Council confirmed the launch at 5:00 pm on 30th September. The consultation covers the Pre-Submission Draft Local Plan and is open for six weeks, with comments due by 11:59 pm on Thursday 12th November.
The North East Lincolnshire Local Plan now works to a housing requirement of 621 homes a year, which equates to 11,178 homes over the plan period. The revised plan runs to 2043 and sets out proposed housing and employment allocations alongside the policies that would guide future development.
Comments made at Regulation 19 will be made public and submitted to the independent Planning Inspector as part of the examination process. The council has published the live Regulation 19 consultation page, while its 30th September announcement confirms the revised housing figures and deadline.
What Regulation 19 actually asks
This is not another broad consultation on whether residents like or dislike individual proposals. Regulation 19 is the final opportunity to make representations before submission for examination, and the council is asking respondents to address whether the plan is legally compliant and sound.
In practical terms, soundness covers whether the plan is positively prepared, justified by proportionate evidence, effective and consistent with national policy. The council also asks anyone seeking a change to identify the policy or paragraph concerned, explain the problem and set out the modification they consider necessary.
There is a small but important date trap in the published material. The Pre-Submission Draft PDF still contains the council’s earlier timetable of 28th September to 8th November. The council’s live Stage 4 page, updated after the Government intervention, now confirms that the consultation actually runs from 30th September to 11:59 pm on 12th November and says late representations will not be considered.
Opening Regulation 19 does not mean the North East Lincolnshire Local Plan has been adopted. North East Lincolnshire’s 2018 Local Plan remains the adopted plan. After this consultation, the draft and representations are due to be submitted for independent examination. The council currently says adoption would be expected later, subject to the plan being found sound.
How to respond to the Regulation 19 consultation
The council is making clear that the North East Lincolnshire Local Plan consultation at this stage is not a repeat of Regulation 18. Anyone making a representation should identify the specific policy, paragraph, site allocation or evidence document concerned and explain why it does or does not meet the tests of soundness or legal compliance.
On soundness, the council points respondents to the four familiar tests: whether the plan is positively prepared, justified, effective and consistent with national policy. A representation seeking a change should therefore do more than object to an outcome. It should identify the evidence or delivery problem and set out the modification considered necessary.
Legal compliance is a separate question. The council highlights whether the plan has been prepared in accordance with the Local Development Scheme and Statement of Community Involvement, whether the Sustainability Appraisal and Habitats Regulations Assessment are in place, and whether the statutory plan-making requirements have been followed.
Representations can be submitted through the council’s consultation portal, by email or in writing. Anonymous comments will not be accepted because the Inspector or Programme Officer may need to contact participants during the examination. Anyone responding by email or letter is asked to give their name and address, identify the part of the plan concerned, explain their position on soundness and legal compliance, and say how the plan should be changed if they consider it unsound.
The council also says a separate response should be submitted for each section, policy or site allocation being challenged. That matters for anyone commenting on several allocations. Only representations made within the consultation period will be taken into account by the Inspector.
Informal help sessions are being held during October at Immingham Library, Freshney Place in Grimsby, Waltham Library, Immingham Civic Centre and Cleethorpes Library. They are intended to help people understand the process and submit comments rather than operate as formal decision-making meetings.
What happens after 12th November?
Once the consultation closes, the North East Lincolnshire Local Plan moves towards submission rather than adoption. Under the ministerial direction the council must submit the plan by 31st December 2026, together with the Regulation 19 representations and supporting material required for examination.
An independent Inspector will then test the plan against the legal and soundness requirements and consider the representations received. Examination can include hearing sessions and, where necessary, proposed main modifications. The ministerial intervention controls the timetable and requires the council to keep progressing the plan, but it does not predetermine the Inspector’s conclusions or turn the draft plan into adopted policy.
The revised housing requirement is part of that examination context. The council says the 621-home annual figure reflects the Government’s revised standard method introduced in December 2024, after the plan review had been paused to consider national changes and updated housing and employment evidence.
Council vote still led to ministerial intervention
Full Council met on 24th September with two closely linked issues before it: a petition seeking removal of the housing allocation beside Weelsby Woods, and whether to publish the Pre-Submission Draft Local Plan for Regulation 19 consultation. A majority voted not to take the draft plan forward.
That decision followed Cabinet’s 16th September support for removing the Grimsby West and Weelsby Woods housing allocations and its request for Government to consider whether the legacy-plan deadline could be paused or extended.
The following day, Pennycook intervened under section 27 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. His letter said he was concerned by the council’s decision not to progress the Regulation 19 Local Plan
for consultation and subsequent examination.
The statutory direction required consultation on the plan considered on 24th September to begin no later than 30th September and to run for at least six weeks. It also requires submission by 31st December 2026, prevents the council from taking steps to withdraw the plan, requires monthly progress reports and directs the authority to continue progressing the plan through examination.
The minister gave the council until 2nd October to set out any exceptional circumstances it considered made intervention inappropriate, but made clear that this did not suspend or remove the directions.
Grimsby West and Weelsby Woods remain in the consultation plan
Cabinet’s support for removing the two strategic allocations did not itself delete them from the plan now being consulted on. The ministerial direction required the council to consult on the emerging plan that was put before Full Council on 24th September.
The North East Lincolnshire Local Plan identifies SH1 Grimsby West, reference HOU342, with an estimated 2,650 homes to 2043 and a potential total capacity of 3,337. SH2, land west of Humberston Road beside Weelsby Woods, reference HOU074B, is shown with an estimated 975 homes to 2043 and a potential total capacity of 1,500.
Those allocations are proposals in the emerging North East Lincolnshire Local Plan. They are not planning permissions and the start of Regulation 19 does not decide the merits of any planning application.
Opposition around Weelsby Woods has been particularly visible. Grimsby and Cleethorpes MP Melanie Onn challenged the proposed scale of housing in the Commons earlier in September, saying: All the while those 1,500 homes are promised, 2,000 sit empty in the town centre.
Pennycook replied that he could not comment on a specific planning application and referred to section 106 agreements as a route through which councils can seek infrastructure and affordable housing contributions.
Why the 31st December deadline still matters
The immediate ministerial deadline has now been met, but the intervention affecting the North East Lincolnshire Local Plan has not gone away. The next hard date in the direction is 31st December 2026, by which point North East Lincolnshire Council must submit the Local Plan for examination.
The North East Lincolnshire Local Plan Regulation 19 material works to a housing requirement of 621 homes a year and says the plan runs from 2025 to 2043. Submission will not amount to adoption. An independent Inspector must first examine the plan, its evidence and the representations made during this consultation.
For anyone intending to respond, the practical deadline is therefore 11:59 pm on 12th November. The council says only representations received within the consultation period will be taken into account by the Inspector.
Further reading: North East Lincolnshire Regulation 19 consultation, council announcement, GOV.UK intervention letter, locally hosted intervention letter, Cabinet decision notice, Local Plan report considered by Full Council and our Local Plan examination guide.
Updated: 30th September 2026
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