Strategic planning regulations laid on 5 November 2026 will replace several older city-region planning arrangements when England’s new spatial development strategy framework starts on 26 November. Four related instruments, made on 2 and 4 November, govern preparation and examination procedures, remove overlapping powers and set a standard examination day rate of £993. All four were laid before Parliament on 5 November, and none grants planning permission for any development.
The new procedural regulations affect strategic planning authorities across England. The consequential changes matter especially in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, the West of England and the North East, where existing combined-authority orders contain their own provisions for spatial development strategies. Those arrangements are being aligned with the new national statutory framework. The amendments also deal with the remaining Yorkshire and Humber regional strategy and requirements for public bodies to assist plan-making.
Unlike the commencement regulations made on 3 November, which fixed the main start date, the latest strategic planning regulations prescribe consultation, timetables, examination steps, monitoring, transitional changes to existing powers and examination costs. For councils and major land promoters, the practical point is not an overnight change in individual site allocations. It is the legal framework within which future cross-boundary housing, infrastructure and employment strategies will be prepared.
How the strategic planning regulations work
The most directly practical instrument is SI 2026/1162, the Strategic Planning Authorities (Spatial Development Strategy) Regulations 2026. It prescribes what strategic planning authorities must publish, whom they must consult and how a proposed strategy moves towards examination and adoption. Made on 4 November and laid on 5 November, it comes into force on 26 November 2026, extends to England and Wales but applies only in England.
Under regulations 6 and 7, timetables must identify the intended dates for commencing preparation, publishing a draft, submitting documents to the Secretary of State and voting on adoption. Generally, an authority must submit its first draft timetable within 90 days of 26 November, although different starting points apply to newly established strategic planning boards and authorities whose previous directions have been revoked. Regulation 10 also requires timetables to remain current and to record certain completed milestones on the day they occur.
Regulation 13 requires a formal commencement notice before preparing a draft strategy, except for specified alterations that do not materially affect policies. Under regulation 15, the consultation notification list includes highways and transport authorities, the Environment Agency, Natural England, infrastructure bodies, NHS bodies and relevant neighbourhood forums and parish councils. The list is prescribed; it should not be mistaken for an exhaustive statement of every duty imposed by the parent Act.
Regulation 16 specifies a minimum 12-week representation period for an ordinary draft strategy. This reduces to at least six weeks for qualifying minor alterations and at least two weeks for qualifying alterations that do not materially affect the strategy’s policies. Following consultation, regulation 17 requires the authority to send the draft, representations, a summary of main issues, supporting documents and its timetable to the Secretary of State. Within four weeks of receipt, the Secretary of State must appoint an examiner or direct that no examination is required.
The regulations also require an annual monitoring report covering delivery against the adopted strategy’s objectives, outcomes and policies, with justification for alteration or replacement where relevant (regulation 20). Regulation 21 requires specified key documents to be available online and for inspection. This procedure matters directly to developers and landowners seeking to make timely, evidenced representations about strategic housing, employment and infrastructure priorities.
What changes for existing city-region powers
A separate consequential instrument is SI 2026/1164, the Strategic Planning (Consequential and Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2026. Regulation 6 removes the spatial development strategy provisions in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Functions and Amendment) Order 2016, while regulation 5 removes a related proceedings provision from its 2011 establishment order. These changes should be read alongside the new Part 1A of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, rather than as a decision to end strategic planning in Greater Manchester.
Regulation 7 removes the former spatial development strategy powers and associated adaptations in the West of England Combined Authority Order 2017. Regulation 8 makes corresponding changes to the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s 2017 order. Both also remove related provisions concerning mayoral functions and constitution. Practitioners should therefore use the amended primary legislation and any current implementing regulations, not assume an older combined-authority order continues to provide a complete procedural route.
For the North East Mayoral Combined Authority, regulation 10 omits the spatial development strategy provisions and Schedule 5 of its 2024 establishment and functions order, together with associated governance provisions. These are consequential amendments to fit the wider statutory framework. The instrument does not itself establish a new regional board, adopt a spatial development strategy or determine the boundaries of any new strategy area.
The explanatory note says the instrument revokes secondary legislation provisions that duplicate and/or contradict
the 2004 Act provisions on combined authorities’ strategic planning functions, as amended by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. The strategic planning regulations therefore principally consolidate and reconcile powers rather than announce individual strategies. Distinguishing that legal change from a political decision about where future homes should go is important when evaluating planning risk and land values.
Yorkshire and Humber and older regulations
Regulation 2 revokes the remaining unrevoked provisions of the Regional Strategy for Yorkshire and Humber. The original regional strategy had already been partially revoked, so this is a clean-up of its residual statutory position, not a newly adopted replacement strategy. The same instrument revokes the Combined Authorities (Spatial Development Strategy) Regulations 2018 and their 2018 amending regulations, plus the 2020 coronavirus amendment regulations dealing with spatial strategies.
Elsewhere, the strategic planning regulations remove spent coronavirus provisions from the London spatial development strategy regulations and from temporary local planning amendments. Removing temporary provisions is not the same thing as changing the development plan for London or altering the status of any specific adopted local plan. The Planning Geek London Plan guide explains London’s separate strategic planning context.
Separate rules govern strategy examinations
A fourth instrument, SI 2026/1161, the Spatial Development Strategy (Examination Procedure) Rules 2026, was made on 2 November and laid on 5 November. It takes effect on 26 November and applies in England only. Unlike SI 2026/1162, which sets out how an authority prepares and submits a strategy, these Rules govern the examiner’s conduct of the examination itself. This is particularly important for councils, developers, land promoters and community groups preparing evidence for a strategic plan.
Under rule 4, the examiner must identify the matters and questions to be examined and invite written submissions and participation requests
, allowing at least four weeks from publication of the invitation. Rule 7 requires the examiner to prepare the list of invited participants and an examination timetable within four weeks after the submission deadline. A person who makes a representation is not automatically entitled to speak at a hearing: the examiner determines the procedure under rule 6 and invites participants. Rule 8 requires at least four weeks’ written notice of a hearing, with remote attendance or broadcasting arrangements where relevant.
Rules 9 to 12 allow further information requests, require a written examiner’s report and impose publication duties. The strategic planning authority must publish specified examination papers as soon as reasonably practicable and make them available for inspection. Where the Secretary of State has taken over preparation, rule 12 requires publication of the examiner’s report within two weeks of receipt. These requirements are distinct from the earlier consultation periods in SI 2026/1162 and should be tracked separately when assessing the timetable for a spatial development strategy.
The £993 public examination daily rate
A further instrument, SI 2026/1163, the Strategic Planning (Costs of Public Examinations) (Standard Daily Amount) (England) Regulations 2026, specifies £993 as the standard daily amount under section 303A(5) of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. It applies to work connected with the public examination of a spatial development strategy under section 12I or section 12P(6)(a) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.
Regulation 2 allows an appropriate proportion of £993 to be charged for part of a day. That amount is associated with a person appointed by the Secretary of State conducting, or working in connection with, a specified examination. It is not a £993 charge on each planning application, a fee payable by individual objectors, or a complete fixed price for examining an entire strategy. The extent of recoverable costs depends on the underlying statutory powers and the work actually undertaken.
All four related instruments extend to England and Wales. SI 2026/1161, SI 2026/1162 and the daily amount instrument expressly apply only in England, while SI 2026/1164 makes consequential changes to the English planning framework. All four come into force on 26 November 2026. The made dates of 2 and 4 November and the laying date of 5 November should not be confused with commencement.
Public bodies and the duty to assist
Regulation 11 of SI 2026/1164 amends the Requirement to Assist with Certain Plan Making (Prescribed Public Bodies) (England) Regulations 2026. The definitions are extended to recognise a spatial development strategy under the Greater London Authority Act 1999 or the new Part 1A framework and to include strategic planning authorities as relevant authorities. This helps connect the new arrangements with existing statutory machinery for requiring assistance from prescribed public bodies.
That matters for the evidence behind strategic plans. Major housing distributions and infrastructure priorities cannot sensibly be developed in isolation from transport capacity, utilities, environmental constraints and neighbouring authority programmes. But this amendment is not a blanket duty on every private developer to provide evidence on demand. Its legal effect arises through the specified statutory powers, relevant authorities and prescribed bodies.
How the 26 November commencement fits together
Earlier SI 2026/1157, made on 3 November, brought the examination-cost enabling amendment and the brownfield prioritisation regulation-making duty into force on 4 November. It appointed 26 November for the remainder of section 58 and Schedule 2 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. The new strategic planning regulations start on that same later date, completing further consequential changes needed for the revised system.
The sequence is important. Section 58 creates the new statutory framework and requires strategic planning authorities to prepare a strategy; the commencement regulations made on 3 November set the main commencement date; and four further instruments deal with strategy preparation, examination procedure, superseded powers and examination charging. Commencement of this machinery does not mean every strategic planning authority will have a completed or adopted strategy on 26 November. Consultation, examination and adoption remain distinct legal steps.
Planning Geek has separately explained the commencement of spatial development strategies and the broader spatial development strategy system. Those distinctions matter when assessing the weight of future emerging strategies against existing development plans and local allocations.
What councils, developers and landowners should watch
The most immediate task for councils is to identify which powers and procedures now apply to their authority and whether older combined-authority wording is being displaced. Strategic planning regulations can alter the route through which broad decisions are taken, but they do not remove the need to assess transport, housing capacity, infrastructure funding and environmental evidence. Where several authority areas share growth pressures, the statutory geography and timing of future consultation will be commercially important.
For developers and landowners, a regional housing or employment figure may influence future investment priorities but does not by itself secure permission or allocate a parcel of land. The Planning Geek local plans guide explains the separate process for local planning policies and site allocations. Major promoters should follow published strategy timetables, emerging evidence and the relationship between strategic policies and local plans.
The four instruments provide definite legal dates and specific changes, but they are not a promise that the proposed strategic planning system will deliver quicker permissions immediately. Its effect will depend on how authorities coordinate and prepare their strategies after 26 November, and whether the resulting decisions give developers and infrastructure providers greater certainty about where investment is expected.
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