Neighbourhood planning

Neighbourhood development plans are created by communities to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood.

Once they are formally made their policies become part of the development plan used to make decisions on planning applications.

In this way, they can shape the development and growth of their local area.

The Localism Act 2011 introduced new powers for communities to influence development in their local area.

These powers include the ability to create a:

• neighbourhood development plan: that sets out policies that guide decisions around development in an area
• neighbourhood development order: which gives the community the ability to grant planning permission for specific kinds of development
• Community Right to Build Order: which are planning permissions granted by the community in order to deliver small-scale, site-specific community projects

Neighbourhood development plans must have at least one policy, relate to a specific area and cannot be used to propose a lower level of housing growth than has already been proposed within the strategic policies in the local plan.

Read more about the Localism Act 2011 and neighbourhood plans.