The Department for Communities and Local Government had previously said that only 72 core strategies had been adopted by August 2011.
Industry experts have warned that this lack of progression with key local planning policy documents, coupled with the impending implementation of the draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), risks creating a policy vacuum.
"The sooner the NPPF and the transitional provisions are published the better," said Richard Ford, a planning law expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com . "What is also taking time is for 'bottom up' neighbourhood planning to feed into Core Strategies as part of the Localism Agenda. Clearly the transitional period will be key as that will put the pressure on. I expect a scramble for Core Strategy adoption as the expiry period approaches."
The draft NPPF current states that local planning authorities should "grant permission where the plan is absent, silent, indeterminate or where relevant policies are out of date".
Through the draft NPPF, the Government is seeking to simplify current planning policy, which runs to over 1,000 pages, to a policy of around 52 pages.