Local planning’s new political reality.

By Nick Sutcliffe – Director

Political fragmentation at the local level will only make it more challenging to navigate a way through the Local Plan making labyrinth.

With the new MHCLG rules for when local plan reviews need to get underway now in force, there should be a lot of activity and opportunity for the development sector over the next three years.

The government has set out a revised approach to Local Plan making, based on a 30 month timescale and some 39 councils (more than 10% of all the planning authorities) have been told they need to commence early Local Plan reviews from the 30th June. Many more will need to follow as their current plans become out of date.

But the political backdrop to this means the task is now even more challenging and it will need a good political compass to navigate the way.

The recent local elections were transformational in bringing to the Labour heartlands the political fragmentation that we have seen roll across previously Conservative held counties and districts in recent years.

May 2026 was the turn of Labour to experience the pain of losing control of countless London boroughs along with cities and boroughs across the Midlands and the north of England. This has profoundly weakened the ability of numerous historically Labour-led areas to co-deliver on the government’s ambitious housing target.

Not only has Reform UK taken chunks out of Labour heartlands in places that were reliably Labour decade after decade, but there is a wider fragmentation in representation meaning Councils have struggled to assemble coalitions for majority control, notably in many London Boroughs as well as places like Birmingham, Kirklees and Oldham. This is not the usual swing of the pendulum where control moves from one of the old main parties to another and then back again. Now we are into five and six party politics with Greens, Reform UK and other anti-establishment insurgents competing for votes and seats. The days of strong leaders heading up local government bastions and commanding overwhelming majorities are unlikely to return any time soon.

This matters because it will make the process of delivering Local Plans more cumbersome, subject to overt politicking and unpredictable. Delivering a Local Plan is highly challenging and requires a committed political leadership prepared to drive it through. With more councils under No Overall Control than ever before, agreements will need to be made across party lines with trade-offs likely over housing numbers, growth locations and other priorities. The recent debate about the South Warwickshire Local Plan is a definite straw in the wind.

Contact us to talk with our local planning experts.