Making significant changes: focused or extensive?

• Focused changes
• Extensive changes
• Minor post-publication changes (editing)

The 2008 Regulations enable the local authority, if faced with issues of soundness raised during representations, to undertake mitigating action. This could include proposing changes to the development plan document. Local authorities should appreciate that in undertaking mitigating action they need to weigh the following against the risk of unsoundness:

• the risk of missing agreed submission milestone dates
• the consequences for housing and planning delivery grant the impact on the goodwill of participants in the process.

When deciding whether a significant change is required you will need to assess the level of changes required and whether this constitutes a focussed or extensive change as outlined below. The text below should be read along side the ‘Making significant change’ diagram.

Click here to link to the diagram: making significant changes

When deciding whether a significant change is required you will need to assess the level of changes required and whether this constitutes a focussed or extensive change as outlined below. The text below should be read along side the ‘Making significant change’ diagram.

Focused changes

A focused change would usually be a change that affects either a specific part of the development plan document, such as:

• one of the chapters or topics, like affordable housing
• a limited area of the plan, for example an urban extension.

Focused change should cover only two or so subject areas, or a limited part of the plan area. It should involve only a relatively small proportion of a development plan document’s text.

If the changes to the original published development plan document (which is submitted for examination) has extensive track changes to it, then this indicates that the changes are likely to fall into the 'extensive' change category.

If the local authority wished to make a focused change it would need to:

• prepare an addendum to the published plan setting out the proposed change
• review the sustainability appraisal and implications of the proposed changes 
• consult people and organisations on the addendum and publish the changes to allow representation to be made on the amended draft plan.

Consulting on draft plan sustainability appraisal report section of this manual for more information has more information.

At the close of this consultation the local authority would submit the original development plan document , the first representations, the addendum and the responses to the addendum to the Secretary of State.

Extensive changes

An extensive change is where the local authority proposes changes that run right through the development plan document’s content and/or the plan area. 

An example might be where the problem identified is a general lack of spatial detail – a development plan document that does not clearly indicate where and how much development is planned (see paragraph 4.1 of PPS12). In this case, the implications of working out such spatial detail are likely to affect large parts of the published development plan document.

In this situation, the changes to the development plan document are very significant as the nature and scale of the issues go to the heart of the plan. It is therefore difficult to see how these issues could be addressed by changing limited parts of it. In this case it would be advisable to withdraw this version of the plan and undertake further work and evidence gathering as required.

Although the plan is not required to go through another Regulation 25 consultation, it would be necessary to consult the specific consultation bodies previously notified. However, targeted consultation with other relevant stakeholders may be necessary to ensure their input as well as their buy-in.

The new material contained within the plan would be subject to a sustainability appraisal and this would form part of the submission material. Once the local authority is satisfied with the altered development plan document (incorporating the changes) it would then resolve to publish (and submit) the altered plan under new Regulation 27 for formal representations.

At the time that the local authority publishes the new development plan document, it would explain to those who have already made representations what the changes are (the differences between the first version and the second version). In light of these changes, the local authority would ask people to either:

• confirm their representation still stands
• indicate any changes
• withdraw their representation.

They would not need to re-submit their original representations in order for them to be considered by the inspector.

The development plan document would then be submitted together with the original representations and any later representations as well as the sustainability appraisal which encompasses the changes made, along with any other material originally submitted. 

Minor post-publication changes (editing)

In some cases, development plan documents may require minor changes. For example, to improve legibility or ensure it is up to date. These are the kind of changes which could be made to a development plan document without consultation. It is envisaged that these minor changes could simply be listed as an attached schedule to accompany the development plan document when it is submitted to the Secretary of State.

Got a query, comment or complaint? Check the Frequently Asked Questions section for answers.