Overview
The Local Plan is the main planning document prepared by local planning authorities, under statutory requirements. It outlines a council’s long term planning framework with strategic and non-strategic planning policies. The Local Plan provides policy guidance on delivering new homes and jobs, protecting landscape resources and green infrastructure. It establishes the council’s strategy for managing development and infrastructure by setting out where development can take place and the planning policies used to make decisions on future planning applications.
What is the Regulation 19 consultation?
The Regulation 19 consultation is the final chance for representations to be made on a local plan before submission for Examination by a Planning Inspector.
Unlike previous Regulation 18 consultations which seek opinions of sites, policies and development across the district more generally, the Regulation 19 consultation is more focused and technical. The role of the Regulation 19 consultation is to provide the opportunity for representations to be made on the ‘soundness’ and legal compliance of the plan.
Soundness
Paragraph 36 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) (2024) sets out that Plans are ‘sound’ if they are:
• Positively prepared – providing a strategy which, as a minimum, seeks to meet the area’s objectively assessed needs; and is informed by agreements with other authorities, so that unmet need from neighbouring areas is accommodated where it is practical to do so and is consistent with achieving sustainable development;
• Justified – an appropriate strategy, taking into account the reasonable alternatives, and based on proportionate evidence;
• Effective – deliverable over the plan period, and based on effective joint working on cross-boundary strategic matters that have been dealt with rather than deferred, as evidenced by the statement of common ground; and
• Consistent with national policy – enabling the delivery of sustainable development in accordance with the policies in this Framework and other statements of national planning policy, where relevant.
Further information on soundness can be found at the GOV.UK website
Legal Compliance
Legal Compliance relates to whether the Local Plan has been prepared in accordance with legal and procedural requirements. Matters for consideration include:
• Has the Plan been prepared in accordance with the latest Local Development Scheme and Statement of Community Involvement?
• Is the Plan accompanied by a Sustainability Appraisal and Habitat Regulations Assessment?
• Is the Plan compliant with all relevant legal requirements including the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004
Further information on legal compliance can be found at the GOV.UK website.
Representations should relate only to legal compliance and soundness of the Local Plan, referring to specific policy and paragraph numbers. In your representation you should provide succinctly all the evidence and supporting information necessary to support your representation and your suggested modification(s) as applicable.
How to Comment on a Regulation 19 Consultation
You can submit your representations in writing through a Council’s online engagement platform.
Hard copies of the Local Plan, Policies Map, Sustainability Appraisal and Habitats Regulations Assessment are usually available for inspection.
Examination
The comments submitted during the Regulation 19 consultation will be used to inform a final draft of the Local Plan, which is submit to the Secretary of State a few months later.
Following submission, the Secretary of State will appoint an Inspector who will undertake an independent Examination of the Plan. This process is managed by the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), and the timetabling will be outside of the control of the Council. It is difficult to estimate how long an Examination may take. In due course the Local Plan will be adopted.
We can help with representations and objections to draft Local Plans and Examinations.
Charrette Law
August 2026
