York Local Plan 2045: A city where history meets the future

City of York Council has today, Monday 28 September 2026, launched a public consultation about developing a new Local Plan.

Councillor Dave Merrett, Executive Member with responsibility for planning, said: “Although we only adopted York’s current Local Plan in February 2025, we’ve seen major policy changes from Government this year and it’s important our Plan is updated to reflect them”.

“The new National Planning Policy Framework published this year is much more ambitious in supporting new home building and economic growth and is more rules-based about where development should go.

“It sets out a vision for plan-led growth – building sustainable new communities and opportunities with appropriate infrastructure and amenities in planned locations and at the right scale.

“We are refreshing our plan now to ensure we stay up to date.”

‘York Local Plan 2045: A city where history meets the future’ will cover the period from 2029 until 2045. It will set out a vision, spatial strategy, and planning policies for the sustainable development of York and will provide a framework for decision-making on planning applications.

The new national process for creating local plans sets out a strict timetable and series of milestones, including public consultations. In the first stage the council has set out what it thinks the challenges are for creating a new plan and is asking people for their views.

Councillor Merrett said: “This first consultation is about defining the scope of the new plan. We’re asking local people and organisations about whether we’ve identified the right challenges, the evidence there is on development needs, and also our on-going engagement approach.

“This will establish what the new Local Plan will and won’t cover to reduce risk, shorten later stages, and support a much faster examination and adoption.”

The consultation runs until 11.59pm on 8 November 2026. Have your say on the consultation via our Local Plan Scoping Consultation webpage york.gov.uk/ScopingConsultation 

See our Local Plan 2045 webpages: York Local Plan 2045 – City of York Council