DCLG offers grants for plan-making and neighbourhood involvement pilots

According to a prospectus (8-page / 258 KB PDF) released by the DCLG last week, the UK government has set aside £600,000 to help volunteer councils to produce "resources, toolkits and reports that can assist other local authorities to better support neighbourhood and local planning, and to facilitate the dissemination of these products".

Pilot authorities will be expected to change their services to find new ways of delivering a local plan quickly, integrating neighbourhood planning into their planning services or getting neighbourhood planning groups involved with decision-making. 

Planning expert Jamie Lockerbie of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "Producing a neighbourhood plan can be a costly exercise, particularly if the parish council or neighbourhood forum needs to undertake evidence base work or a strategic environmental assessment. In order to undertake these processes properly it is usually the case that professional advice will be required. Hopefully this money will go some way to help fund schemes and toolkits that will assist neighbourhood plan making bodies with some of the more complex aspects of the neighbourhood plan making process."

Successful applicants for funding will be expected to carry out their changes by the end of March 2016 and provide the government with reports and toolkits to assist other councils with their own planning services by the end of June 2016.

The deadline for the submission of proposals is 18 December.