Neighbourhood plans: how local communities shape planning decisions

 

A neighbourhood plan is a statutory planning document prepared by a local community for a designated neighbourhood area. Once it comes into force, it forms part of the development plan and its policies are used alongside the local plan when planning applications and appeals are decided.

That makes a neighbourhood plan very different from a village plan, parish strategy or community wish list. It can allocate land for development, set local planning policies and influence the design, location and form of future development.

The rules changed materially in 2026. New statutory requirements took effect on 25 March 2026, and the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework introduced new plan-making policies, a new transition rule and a rewritten S6 protection for qualifying neighbourhood plans. This guide explains the current position in England.

 

What is a neighbourhood plan?

 

Neighbourhood planning gives a community the opportunity to make planning policy for its own area. The August 2026 NPPF describes neighbourhood plans as a way for local communities to plan positively by identifying community priorities that can be supported through the planning system.

A neighbourhood plan can, where appropriate, allocate land for development. It can also contain policies dealing with site-specific matters and wider local issues such as infrastructure and community facilities, regeneration, design requirements and design codes, local environmental improvements and the conservation of local heritage assets.

It cannot be used simply to block growth. Policy PM5 says its contents should not result in less development than is specified in other parts of the development plan covering the same area. That now sits alongside an important statutory housing condition introduced in March 2026, explained below.

 

Who can prepare a neighbourhood plan?

 

In an area with a parish or town council, that council is normally the qualifying body responsible for neighbourhood planning. In an unparished area, a community can apply to the local planning authority for a neighbourhood forum to be designated.

The plan applies to a formally designated neighbourhood area. The neighbourhood area does not have to match a ward or settlement boundary, although in parished areas it will often follow parish boundaries.

The local planning authority does not write the plan for the community, but it has statutory responsibilities at key stages and must provide advice or assistance to the qualifying body.

 

What changed on 25 March 2026?

 

Sections 98 and 99 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 came into force on 25 March 2026. They made significant changes to the content and legal tests for neighbourhood plans.

Section 98 puts the types of policy a neighbourhood plan can contain on a clearer statutory footing. These include:

• allocating land and setting the amount, type, location and timing of development;
• other local policies relating to the development and use of land;
• infrastructure and affordable housing requirements arising from development; and
• specific design requirements for the neighbourhood area or particular locations

It also adds environmental duties. So far as the qualifying body considers appropriate having regard to the subject matter of the plan, the neighbourhood plan must be designed to help secure that development and land use contribute to climate-change mitigation and adaptation, and to take account of any relevant Local Nature Recovery Strategy.

 

The old “general conformity” basic condition has changed

 

This is an area where older guides can now mislead.

Before 25 March 2026, one of the familiar basic conditions required a neighbourhood plan to be in general conformity with the strategic policies of the development plan. Section 99 of the 2023 Act changed that test for neighbourhood plans.

The replacement condition is focused on housing: making the neighbourhood plan must not result in the development plan proposing less housing development than it would have proposed if the neighbourhood plan were not made.

That does not mean a neighbourhood plan can now ignore the rest of the development plan or national policy. It must still satisfy the remaining basic conditions and other legal requirements, and the August 2026 NPPF says neighbourhood plans should not result in less development than specified in other parts of the development plan. The NPPF also says plans should not duplicate, substantially restate or be inconsistent with national decision-making policies.

Watch out for older Government guidance: parts of the long-standing GOV.UK neighbourhood-planning guidance still describe the former general-conformity condition and quote old NPPF paragraph numbers. For work after March and August 2026, check the current legislation and August 2026 NPPF rather than relying on those passages in isolation.

 

How is a neighbourhood plan made?

 

The process is community-led but has formal statutory stages. In broad terms:

1. Neighbourhood area and qualifying body: establish the area and, where necessary, have a neighbourhood forum designated
2. Evidence and engagement: identify the issues the plan needs to address, gather proportionate evidence and engage with residents, businesses, landowners and other interested parties
3. Draft the plan: prepare policies and any allocations, together with the supporting documents needed to show that the legal requirements and basic conditions are met
4. Regulation 14 consultation: the qualifying body carries out the formal pre-submission consultation
5. Regulation 15 submission: the proposed plan and prescribed documents are submitted to the local planning authority
6. Regulation 16 publicity: the local planning authority publicises the submitted plan and invites representations
7. Independent examination: an examiner considers the basic conditions and legal requirements and recommends whether the plan should proceed, usually with any necessary modifications
8. Referendum: if the plan proceeds, people entitled to vote in the neighbourhood area vote on whether it should be used to help decide planning applications
9. Bringing the plan into force: if more than half of those voting vote in favour, the plan comes into force as part of the statutory development plan. The local planning authority must then formally make it, subject to the statutory provisions

The Government now maintains a wider Neighbourhood planning toolkits collection, first published in March 2026 and expanded through July. Alongside the core guides on creating a plan, writing policies and assessing sites, the collection now includes practical guidance on Strategic Environmental Assessment screening, implementation and review, keeping a plan simple, community engagement, Local Green Space designations, regeneration, consulting environmental statutory consultees and establishing a neighbourhood forum. The Government says the toolkits are still being updated to reflect recent planning policy and expects that work to be completed by April 2027. Because neighbourhood policy continued to change during 2026, always read toolkits alongside the current NPPF and legislation.

 

When does a neighbourhood plan start carrying weight?

 

A draft neighbourhood plan can be a material consideration before it becomes part of the development plan. Under policy DM4 of the August 2026 NPPF, the weight given to emerging development-plan policies depends on:

• the stage the plan has reached;
• the extent of unresolved objections to the relevant policies; and
• how closely those policies comply with the NPPF’s plan-making policies

The further advanced the plan, and the fewer significant unresolved objections there are, the more weight it is likely to carry. For the NPPF’s prematurity policy, an emerging neighbourhood plan is unlikely to be regarded as advanced before the local planning authority’s publicity period has ended.

Once the plan has been approved at referendum, it comes into force as part of the statutory development plan. Formal making by the local planning authority follows, but the successful referendum is the key point at which it acquires development-plan status.

Edith Weston Parish Council v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2025] EWHC 2908 (Admin) is a useful illustration. A referendum had taken place five days before the appeal decision, but nobody had told the Inspector. The Inspector therefore treated the new neighbourhood plan as an emerging material consideration rather than part of the development plan. The High Court agreed that this was an error, although it did not quash the decision because it concluded that the appeal would inevitably have been allowed anyway.

The same judgment is also useful when reading the current S6 protection below. It considered the predecessor NPPF rule and held that a policy setting development and design principles for a site with outline permission did not amount to an allocation, particularly where the neighbourhood plan expressly left site allocations to the local plan. S6 is differently worded in the August 2026 NPPF, but the practical distinction remains helpful: acknowledging or guiding development on a known site is not necessarily the same thing as the neighbourhood plan itself allocating that site to meet its housing requirement.

 

Which NPPF applies to a neighbourhood plan in 2026?

 

Annex A of the August 2026 NPPF contains a specific transition rule.

• If the neighbourhood plan was submitted to the local planning authority under Regulation 15 on or before 17 August 2026, it should be prepared in accordance with the December 2024 NPPF
• If it had not been submitted by then, it must comply with the August 2026 NPPF
• A qualifying body whose plan had already been submitted can choose to withdraw it and update it to take account of the August 2026 Framework

Do not confuse that NPPF transition with the separate statutory changes made in March 2026. The Regulation 15 rule determines which version of national planning policy the plan is prepared against; it does not turn back the clock on statutory provisions that have already come into force.

 

How much housing should a neighbourhood plan provide?

 

Policy HO2 says a local plan should set a housing requirement figure for each designated neighbourhood plan area unless it is impractical to do so. Where that cannot sensibly be done, for example because the neighbourhood area was designated late or the local plan is out of date, the local planning authority should provide an indicative figure instead.

The figure should take account of matters including the latest evidence of local housing need, the population of the neighbourhood area and the local planning authority’s most recently available planning strategy. The NPPF says a nil housing figure should be avoided except in specified justified circumstances.

A neighbourhood plan can plan for more development than the minimum expected of its area. What it cannot do is use neighbourhood planning as a mechanism for reducing the housing development that the wider development plan would otherwise propose.

 

S6: special protection for recent neighbourhood plans

 

The August 2026 NPPF gives some recent neighbourhood plans an important decision-making protection through policy S6.

For a proposal involving housing, where the proposal conflicts with a neighbourhood plan, the benefits of approving it are likely to be substantially outweighed by the adverse effects if both of these conditions are met:

• the neighbourhood plan became part of the development plan five years or less before the decision is made; and
• the neighbourhood plan contains allocations to meet its identified housing requirement under HO2

The word allocations matters. The 2026 policy is more precise than the older NPPF wording. A neighbourhood plan does not qualify for S6 merely because it contains general housing policies or relies on development allocated elsewhere in the development plan.

This is part of the new presumption in favour of sustainable development. It is not the same as the pre-August-2026 paragraph 14 rule, so older summaries referring to the former tests should not be applied to the current S6 policy.

 

Does a neighbourhood plan expire after five years?

 

No. The five-year period in S6 is the period for that particular national policy protection; it is not an automatic expiry date for the neighbourhood plan itself.

A made neighbourhood plan remains part of the development plan until it is replaced or otherwise ceases to have effect under the statutory framework. Its policies still need to be read with the other parts of the development plan and current national policy.

Annex A of the August 2026 NPPF is important here. A neighbourhood-plan policy that is materially inconsistent with a current national decision-making policy should be given very limited weight, unless the neighbourhood plan was made against the August 2026 Framework. Other older neighbourhood-plan policies should not lose weight simply because they pre-date August 2026.

 

What if the neighbourhood plan and local plan conflict?

 

All the relevant development-plan documents have to be read together. Sometimes an older neighbourhood policy and a later local-plan policy can be reconciled; sometimes there is a genuine conflict.

Where development-plan policies genuinely conflict, section 38(5) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 provides that the conflict is resolved, to the extent of the conflict, in favour of the policy contained in the document that became part of the development plan most recently.

This is one reason a neighbourhood plan should be kept under review, particularly while a new local plan or spatial development strategy is being prepared. See our guide to the development plan for the wider hierarchy.

 

Can a neighbourhood plan stop a planning application?

 

It can be a very powerful part of the decision, but it is not an absolute veto.

Planning applications must be decided in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. A made neighbourhood plan forms part of that development plan, so conflict with a clear and relevant neighbourhood policy can be a substantial problem for an applicant.

But the decision-maker must still read the development plan as a whole, consider the current national decision-making policies and take account of other material considerations. The age and wording of the policy, later development-plan policies, the August 2026 Annex A rules and, for housing proposals, S6 can all matter.

If you are assessing a real site, do not stop at the words “Neighbourhood Plan”. Identify the exact policy, check the policies map and allocations, establish when the plan came into force, and then check whether any later plan or national policy changes affect the weight to give it.

 

What about Local Green Space?

 

Neighbourhood plans can designate Local Green Space where the national criteria are met. This is a planning designation rather than a general mechanism for protecting every valued open area, and the site has to satisfy the relevant national policy tests.

Under the August 2026 NPPF, development proposals on Local Green Space are dealt with through the specific national decision-making policy HC8, rather than simply through the ordinary S5 countryside route.

 

Practical checklist for an application in a neighbourhood plan area

 

• Is there a neighbourhood plan? Check whether it is draft, at examination, referendum-approved or made
• What is the exact neighbourhood area? Do not assume the plan covers the whole parish or settlement without checking the designation
• Which policies actually apply? Read the written policies and any relevant maps or allocations
• How old is the plan? This matters to S6 and to later development-plan conflicts
• Was it made against the August 2026 NPPF? Annex A can affect the weight of a materially inconsistent older policy
• Is a new local plan emerging? Check whether the documents can be read together and whether later policies may ultimately change the position
• For housing, does S6 apply? Confirm both the five-year condition and that the neighbourhood plan itself contains allocations meeting its identified HO2 housing requirement

 

Costs and what happens after refusal

 

There is no separate fee for reading or relying on a neighbourhood plan. Any planning application fee depends on the route being used, so check our planning fees page. Professional advice, a planning statement and any technical evidence may involve separate costs.

If an application is refused, the applicant will normally have a right of appeal. The appeal must deal with the exact neighbourhood-plan policies, the development plan as a whole and any current S6 protection. See our planning appeals section and check the relevant deadline early.

 

Where to go next

 

To understand why a made neighbourhood plan has statutory weight, read What is the development plan?. For the council-wide plan, see our guide to local plans. If a housing proposal conflicts with a recent neighbourhood plan, continue to the presumption in favour of sustainable development and policy S6.

 

Relevant legislation, policy and guidance

 

Links below go to the legislation or current Government material. On legislation.gov.uk, check the Changes to Legislation information where consolidated text has not yet incorporated a recent amendment.

• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, section 38A – neighbourhood development plans;
• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, section 38B – what a neighbourhood plan may contain, as amended;
• Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, section 38 – development-plan status and conflicting policies;
• Town and Country Planning Act 1990, Schedule 4B – examination, basic conditions and referendum machinery;
• Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012 – including Regulations 14, 15 and 16;
• Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, section 98 – neighbourhood-plan content;
• Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, section 99 – revised basic conditions;
• Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (Commencement No. 11 and Saving and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026 – commencement on 25 March 2026;
• National Planning Policy Framework, August 2026 – particularly PM5, PM6, PM17, DM4, S6, HO2 and Annex A;
• How to create a neighbourhood plan – Government toolkit published March 2026;
• Planning Practice Guidance: neighbourhood planning – useful background, but some passages still carry older statutory and NPPF terminology

Other Planning Policy Sections

 

Neighbourhood Plans Page Updated: 29th August 2026