We’ve supported many councils across England and want to share what we have learnt about managing a Local Plan, preparing a strong evidence base, and fulfilling the Duty to Cooperate. We hope you find them practical, encouraging, and easy to use. Our tips are grouped into three areas—Project Management, Evidence Base, and Duty to Cooperate. We’ve added some extra detail to explain how or why to implement a tip. We hope these top tips are helpful. PAS are here to support you. If you need more help or want to explore our other resources, visit our website or subscribe to our monthly bulletins.
Project Management Top Tips
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- Look at Section B of our PAS Local Plan Routemapper for details on scoping.
- Scoping clarifies what needs updating and why.
- Use the National Planning Policy Framework as your starting point for setting strategic policies. Then factor in local and corporate changes.
- Consider if your existing spatial approach is still appropriate or needs a rethink.
- Think ahead about your Duty to Cooperate (see Duty to Cooperate section) to identify cross-boundary issues and who you will engage with.
- Develop an internal engagement plan, including how you will involve statutory consultees, members, and senior managers.
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- The Project Initiation Document sets out your project management approach in one place.
- Use it to secure corporate buy-in, set governance arrangements, and manage risk. Share it widely—internally (for example, with service leads, legal, and finance) and strategically externally (consultants, stakeholders)—so everyone understands your strategy and what is expected from them
- Paragraph 51 of our PAS Local Plan Routemapper explains the key elements of a Project Initiation Document. If you have your own in-house Project Initiation Document, adapt it to meet these standards.
- We’re producing an updated tool on this, which will be available on our website in spring 2025.
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- Identify and define key risks from the outset: staff capacity, budget constraints, legal challenges, political change, and so on.
- Set out how each risk will be mitigated or managed.
- A live risk register provides transparency and helps officers and members stay aware.
- Update it alongside your detailed project plan (see Top tip 4), so both documents work together.
- Make sure your governance structures let the right people act quickly when new risks arise.
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- A key pitfall is having no single, joined-up project plan, or only covering some stages (for example, Regulation 18 and Regulation 19).
- Building on scoping (Top tip 1), your plan should include:
- Governance: key decision points and committee timelines
- Engagement: proposed phases and methods
- Evidence Base: scope, procurement steps, timescales
- Duty to Cooperate actions and milestones
- Use it as a living document to monitor progress, adjust tasks, and revise deadlines.
- Reflect team resources and highlight realistic timeframes—do not forget non-Local Plan workloads.
- We at the PAS are preparing a Project Plan tool to share in spring.
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- Do not impose arbitrary deadlines on your team. Instead, use scoping findings (see Top tip 1) to see what is possible.
- Add contingency time. Local Plans are complex, and delays happen.
- Factor in holidays, recruitment lags, or staff changes, which often cause slippage (see Top tip 6 on resources).
- Look for ways to simplify or streamline consultation and engagement—always keep it proportionate.
- Ensure governance processes are clear, including committee lead-in times.
- Typically, allow at least 12 months from submission to adoption, and remember the six-week consultation on main modifications.
- You should where you can consider combining Council decisions on Publication of the plan (Regulation 19) and the decision to submit the Plan in one report – this can save time and work.
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- Insufficient plan-making resources is a common barrier.
- From the scoping stage (Top tip 1), outline who will do which tasks, factoring in existing commitments and annual leave.
- Map where resource “pinch points” may arise—and how you will handle them.
- Keep your risk register updated for staff turnover or sudden new pressures (see Top tip 3).
- Present all of this in your Project Initiation Document so senior management know what you need in terms of staff and budget.
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- Work out which tasks truly need a qualified planner and which can be done by other colleagues or teams.
- Consider secondments, internal upskilling, or staff sharing with nearby councils.
- Look at whether you can outsource intensive tasks (for example, large-scale evidence gathering or data analysis).
- Check if other council departments (for example, geographic information systems or communications) can lend expertise.
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- Refer directly to regulations, guidance, and your council’s constitution to see if you can reduce procedural stages.
- You might streamline governance or speed up procurement with new frameworks.
- Shorten or combine consultation stages where proportionate, while still meeting statutory requirements; for example, see Top tip 5 on challenging processes.
challenge your approach.
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- An external eye (for instance, from the PAS) can help you spot gaps or highlight better ways to do things.
- If you cannot get external support, use the Local Plan Routemapper Toolkits to check you have everything for each stage.
- The Routemapper was published in 2021, and we will update it in spring 2025.
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- Keep an eye on national changes, such as updates to the National Planning Policy Framework or the standard method, and factor them into your risk register (Top tip 3) and project plan (Top tip 4).
- Build in election cycles—training and briefings for newly elected members can reduce delays.
- Use your Project Initiation Document (Top tip 2) to maintain continuity. When political leadership changes, the Project Initiation Document can quickly bring new members up to speed.
- We at the PAS will keep supporting you with tools and resources, flagged in our monthly bulletins.
Evidence Base Top Tips
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- Critical evidence depends on local circumstances—housing, employment, green belt, transport, and so on.
- Early on, rank which evidence strands are essential.
- The chapters of the National Planning Policy Framework can guide you when checking what is up to date.
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- Some evidence (for example, a strategic housing market assessment) can go out of date after two years, especially if it involves market signals or land availability.
- Other evidence (such as a landscape character assessment) might remain current for longer, but you still need to confirm it reflects local conditions and any changes to these.
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- This helps you shape the right evidence and supports your Duty to Cooperate (see Duty to Cooperate section).
- Examples of key stakeholders are : neighbouring authorities, county councils, infrastructure providers, and local communities.
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- If there are key corporate priorities (for example, a climate strategy), ensure this feed into your plan’s evidence.
- Engage other departments early—housing, regeneration, or economic development—to reduce duplication, save money on preparing evidence and to gather local intelligence.
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- This should be part of your overall Local Plan project management (see Project Management section).
- Identify new or updated evidence needed, plus time, budget, and staff capacity.
- Include milestone dates for commissioning and final reports, along with risk management; for example, what if data is delayed?
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- Our “Evidence for Plan Making” advice note (February 2020) includes an Evidence Base Prioritisation and Audit template and an Evidence Action Plan.
- A simple process diagram can help you see how evidence aligns with each plan stage.
- Regularly audit which evidence is complete, which is in progress, and what is still outstanding.
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- Make sure your procurement briefs are clear about scope, outcomes, and format.
- Agree realistic timetables and deliverables with consultants.
- Avoid “gold-plating”: only commission what you genuinely need to support the plan.
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- A common pitfall is out-of-date or poorly sequenced evidence, especially if it must link with strategic studies or cross-boundary matters (see Duty to Cooperate section).
- Do not jump to commissioning, for example, infrastructure modelling before you know your potential spatial options (see next tip on Sustainability Appraisal).
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- Sustainability Appraisal should inform policy choices and site selection, not be a bolt-on at the end.
- Our PAS guide to better Sustainability Appraisal offers practical tips.
- Make sure your Sustainability Appraisal is integrated at each key plan-making stage to shape options and solutions.
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- The evidence is not tested in isolation; the inspector will focus on whether it justifies your plan.
- Signpost your main evidence documents in footnotes or supporting text so they are easy to find.
- If you choose not to accept a consultant’s recommendation, record why—examiners look for clarity on such decisions.
- A well-structured Regulation 22 Consultation Statement can direct the inspector to the relevant evidence and show how you addressed representations.
Duty to Cooperate Top Tips
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- You must show constructive, active, and ongoing engagement from the earliest stages of plan preparation (see Top tip 3 in this section for risk management).
- If you cannot agree on a certain outcome with a neighbouring authority, show what you did to try and why agreement was not reached.
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- Set out how you will engage with all prescribed bodies and potentially others.
- Update it at key milestones so you do not lose track of cross-boundary issues.
- Cross-reference the strategy in your main project plan and capture the key milestone in the latter (see Project Management section).
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- Issues such as unmet housing need can lead to plan failure if not tackled early.
- Factor in potential legal or political disputes and plan mitigation measures (for example, early dialogue, Memoranda of Understanding, Statements of Common Ground).
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- Map out each “strategic matter” (housing, transport, minerals, and so on) and which prescribed bodies you need to involve.
- Simply listing meeting dates is not enough; you must show what was discussed and whether agreement was reached.
- Keep a clear audit trail—meeting notes, emails, letters. This is essential for when it comes to writing up a Duty to Cooperate Statement and can inform Statements of Common Ground.
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- This person keeps an eye on timelines and evidence, ensuring Duty to Cooperate remains active throughout plan preparation.
- Political buy-in is crucial, especially for sensitive areas such as unmet housing need.
- Officer and member working groups can be an effective way to share and resolve issues (for more on governance, see Project Management section).
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- Get member sign-off so everyone agrees these are “strategic.”
- Cross-boundary housing need is usually the most difficult issue—address it directly rather than deferring it.
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- For environmental matters, speak to Natural England, the Environment Agency, and Historic England early.
- For transport infrastructure, involve National Highways and Network Rail.
- The National Health Service may require early discussion due to shorter-term health planning cycles.
- Memoranda of Understanding outline cooperation principles can help formalise working arrangements – as a minimum make sure you have a shared understanding of engagement. Here your Local Plan Project Initiation document can help clarify expectations at the start of the process.
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- Statements of Common Ground are crucial for showing how cross-boundary issues (for example, strategic site allocations, shared infrastructure) will be resolved.
- They vary in detail; some might cover high-level approaches, others very specific site or policy agreements.
- Update them as you progress—Statements of Common Ground are living documents.
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- Do not hide disagreements. State what the sticking points are and outline next steps or timeframes to resolve them.
- This is not an admission of failure; it is an honest reflection of ongoing dialogue.
- Keep referencing your risk register and Duty to Cooperate strategy (Top tip 2) to manage these issues.
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- Produce the Statement iteratively, starting at as early as Regulation 18, and refine it at key stages.
- It should reference or append the latest Memoranda of Understanding, Statements of Common Ground, and any relevant minutes or correspondence.
- Show clearly which issues have been resolved, which remain unresolved, and the implications (see Duty to Cooperate Top tip 9 for dealing with unresolved points).
- Use the PAS Local Plan Routemapper for further advice on meeting Duty to Cooperate requirements. We are currently updating the Routemapper and will publish an update soon.