St Albans has stalled core strategy until NPPF is finalised

The local authority was due to discuss the district's core strategy on 1 November but this is now going to be delayed to fit around central Government decisions, the council said.

A Core Strategy document is a key compulsory local development document which outlines the local authority's development areas and plans, and under the anticipated NPPF would be used to judge compliance of planning applications with the local authority's development plans.

The Council's Cabinet has approved an amended timetable which means that the Council will not issue its planning core strategy until after the Government has finalised the NPPF and revoked the East of England Plan, a council statement said.

The decision to delay the issue of the core strategy was taken in line with legal advice. At its meeting on 1 November, the Council heard that a number of other councils around the country who are midway through the development of their planning core strategies are similarly affected.

The council's pre-submission core strategy – the document that will be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate – would be published around three months "after the later of the publication of the final NPPF or the revocation of the East of England plan".

"I am disappointed that we need to hold up the district’s core planning strategy, which was due to be discussed by cabinet on 1 November," Teresa Heritage, portfolio holder for planning and conservation at St Albans City and District Council, said.

"We have to make sure we get the timing right so our final core strategy document is suitably robust in legal terms. We will move to finalise our planning core strategy as soon as the government revokes the East of England plan and issues the NPPF," Heritage said.

There has been much controversy surrounding the proposed NPPF and core strategies and having an up-to-date core strategy will be key for local authorities. The 'presumption in favour of sustainable development' contained in the draft NPPF states that the default answer is "yes" to development where a core strategy is "absent, silent or indeterminate".