17 Jan 2012, 10:28 am
The transitional arrangements will be set out when the second round of commencement orders have been made, which are scheduled for today, the spokeswoman said. It is thought that the announcement will be made alongside the implementation of much of the Localism Act this week.
"Local planning authorities should be reassured they will have no problems adopting core strategies," the DCLG spokeswoman said, according to Property Week.
The Government's controversial National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) will introduce a new "presumption in favour of sustainable development", which states that where a council's local plan is "absent, silent or indeterminate", there is a presumption in favour of granting planning permission for all sustainable development.
Currently only about 30% of councils have an up to date local plan in place, which has caused concern that the presumption could result in a raft of unwanted development, according to a Communities and Local Government report.
Some councils have intentionally delayed the formal adoption of their core strategies until after the implementation of the NPPF and revocation of regional spatial strategies. This is due to fears that local plans would be immediately out of date upon implementation of the NPPF.
“Full transitional provisions will be put in place to ensure that any development plans prepared before parts of the Localism Act come into force can still be adopted, said the DCLG spokeswoman.