Planning and Architecture

Local Development Plans (LDP): Action Plan and Advice on Evidence Reports and Gate Checks

February 26, 2026 by planningarchitecture No Comments | Category Housing & Infrastructure, Local Plans, National Planning Framework, Planning

Challenges

An increasing number of Evidence Reports have been returned to planning authorities following the Gate Check, on the basis of having insufficient information to inform the proposed local development plan. This has particularly related to key issues of housing and infrastructure, including education, transport and health. Addressing the issues is adding time to plan preparation when timely progression is essential.

Summit Collaboration

In December, we held a summit involving representatives from the Directorate for Planning, Architecture and Regeneration, the Directorate for Planning and Environmental Appeals (DPEA) and Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS), together with the National Planning Hub and National Planning Improvement Champion (NPIC).

The focus was to consider together what changes could improve the process and to identify actions and advice that could be agreed and implemented at pace.

Key Messages

The action plan and advice is the output of this collaboration, which:

• aims to accelerate plan progress,
• sets out agreed actions for key stakeholders,
• clarifies how the LDP Guidance should be applied drawing on experience,
• provides greater clarity on the approach to essential housing and infrastructure evidence to be included in the Evidence Report, and
• sets out Reporter expectations on sufficiency.

Key themes include:

• providing proportionate, necessary evidence of significant issues,
• focusing on the significant issues, including housing and infrastructure,
• use of templates and summary statements and acknowledgement of any gaps in evidence.

Specific advice is provided on steps to arrive at indicative local housing land requirements (iLHLR) and transport, education and health infrastructure evidence.

Looking Ahead

An important matter agreed by all was the need to avoid potential for delays at subsequent LDP preparation stages. We will therefore apply the collaborative approach taken at the summit and to the advice to support the Proposed Plan and Examination stages as far as possible.

Comments