Nottingham City Council has opened the first formal consultation on the Nottingham Local Plan, asking what the plan should cover before it writes detailed policies or picks sites for development.
The Regulation 20 scoping consultation began on 23rd September 2026. Residents, businesses, community groups, landowners and developers have until 5.00 pm on 28th October 2026 to respond. The plan will cover the whole Nottingham City Council area.
There is an important limit to what is on the table. The council says: “At this stage, we are not consulting on specific planning policies, site allocations or a preferred development strategy.” Anyone looking for a proposed housing site on a map is therefore looking at the wrong stage.
What the Nottingham Local Plan asks now
The council has published a Local Plan scoping document that asks about the issues, priorities and evidence needed to prepare the plan. Its ten themes include brownfield regeneration, housing mix and affordability, transport, climate change, design, heritage and infrastructure.
Behind those headings are concrete choices. The council asks how major regeneration opportunities at Broad Marsh, Waterside, the Island Quarter, the Boots site and the Station Growth Zone can be unlocked, while smaller brownfield plots also contribute. It identifies land ownership, contamination, flood risk, infrastructure and viability among the barriers to delivery.
The Nottingham Local Plan scoping paper asks how affordable, family, accessible and specialist homes should fit alongside student accommodation and HMOs. Nottingham identifies pressure in parts of Lenton, Dunkirk, Arboretum, Radford and Wollaton, and asks how to balance students, families and other residents where shared and purpose-built accommodation is concentrated.
Developers also have a funding question to watch. Nottingham does not currently operate a Community Infrastructure Levy, but the council asks whether CIL or another approach should help pay for infrastructure, and how Section 106 obligations should work where viability is constrained. It is seeking views, not proposing a levy at this stage.
Those are questions about the city’s direction, not agreed policy commitments. A response might identify an overlooked local need, explain why a particular kind of evidence matters or flag an infrastructure constraint that the future plan will have to address.
The Nottingham Local Plan consultation also covers the Strategic Environmental Assessment scoping report. This sets out the proposed environmental topics, baseline information and framework for testing options as the plan develops. The council separately invites views on its engagement strategy: how residents and organisations should be involved at later stages.
“We want to hear from residents, businesses, community groups and stakeholders at this early stage,” said Councillor Jay Hayes, the council’s Executive Member for Housing and Planning, in its announcement. He said their input could “help shape the direction of future planning policies”.
Why this is a different Local Plan consultation
Nottingham is following the 2026 Local Planning Regulations. Regulation 20 puts scoping at the start of the new statutory sequence, after the notice to begin preparing a plan. The council published that notice on 30th June 2026.
Government guidance says the authority must seek views on what belongs in the plan and how it should consult people later. Certain consultation bodies must be invited, and anyone else may make representations. The point of this stage is to establish the questions that later choices must answer.
The much-discussed 30-month plan preparation timetable has not begun simply because this consultation opened. It starts when the authority passes Gateway 1. Nottingham says it anticipates that initial assessment in October, after the scoping stage. A later consultation will deal with proposed plan content and evidence; further on, people will be able to comment on the proposed Local Plan itself. A separate Call for Sites is expected later; the diagram in this scoping paper is illustrative, not a proposed allocation map.
For anyone used to the old Regulation 18 and Regulation 19 labels, this is part of a new sequence. Our guide to the old and new Local Plan systems explains the stages in more detail.
What happens to planning applications meanwhile?
Opening this consultation does not replace the policies currently used to decide applications. For now, the adopted Aligned Core Strategy and Land and Planning Policies Document still matter for current applications. The Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan is at examination and could change that framework before the new city plan is adopted. The adopted waste plan also remains part of the development plan; waste and minerals are outside the scope of this new city Local Plan.
That distinction matters to a homeowner or developer with a live scheme. A scoping question is not a newly adopted allocation or a policy that grants or refuses permission. The starting point for a current application remains the operative development plan, alongside other relevant considerations.
How to take part before 28th October
Use the council’s Local Plan consultation page to read the documents and complete its online response form. The formal notice requires representations to reach the council by 5.00 pm on Wednesday 28th October 2026. If the form is inaccessible or cannot accept supporting material, contact the Local Plans Team through the options given on that page.
If the Nottingham Local Plan could affect your land or a proposed project, this is a chance to put the relevant issue and evidence on the record early. Planning Geek can help you frame a focused planning response; tell us about the site and the issue.
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