Somerset Local Plan Scoping Consultation 2026
Scope - what this plan will cover
The draft Local Plan Scope sets out the broad subject matters that the Local Plan policies will cover. This consultation is about whether there should be a policy on the subject, not about what those policies will say. Opportunities to comment on what the policy says will come at the second consultation, planned for September 2027.
This Local Plan will be quite different from our current adopted local plans because the draft national decision-making policies will now cover many issues that were traditionally left to local plans. Also, Somerset Council plans for a much larger area, following the move to a unitary authority in 2023. So the Local Plan will be more high‑level and strategic than previous district plans, with less detail about individual towns and villages and fewer places having their own vision or strategy.
As you answer the questions, please refer to the supporting documents and information provided. You may find it helpful to keep these open in separate tabs or windows.
- The draft Scope of the Local Plan lists the full proposed structure and scope of the Local Plan. It lists the national policies that relate to a theme plus the proposed local policies areas and a brief reason for their inclusion.
- The national decision-making policies as set out in the draft National Planning Policy Framework (Dec 2025 version). All of these policies will apply to Somerset.
Draft Scope of the Local Plan
You can download the Draft Scope of the Local Plan to read, or view the document below:
What we can and cannot include as local policies
This guidance will help you if you are thinking about suggesting any additional policies.
National decision-making policies place limits on what we can include in our local plan so this Local Plan will be quite different from our current adopted local plans. National decision-making policies will now cover many issues that were traditionally left to local plans.
- We should not repeat national policies. National decision-making policies already cover many issues – much more than they used to. The Local Plan should only add local detail where national policy specifically says this is required. We have already included all policies in the scope where national policies say they are required.
- We can only include local policies where they are clearly needed. This might relate to a strategic Somerset issue that has not been captured in national policy. The main focus should be on giving clear guidance that helps development sites come forward successfully, rather than adding broad or general rules that don’t relate to delivering sites. Examples of policy areas that we think are Somerset issues that are not included in the national policies relate to tourism and nutrient neutrality.
- We cannot include local policies that try to do something different to the national decision-making policies such as impose stricter targets on developers. This is to ensure consistency across England, maintain development viability, and provide clarity. If you do not like a national decision-making policy, we cannot seek to change it by having our own version because the national policy will always carry more weight in decision-making.
- We cannot impose tighter local standards on matters in Building Regulations except in two narrow circumstances relating to accessible homes and water efficiency. This means that we cannot have policies that try to impose higher building performance or construction specifications.
- We cannot impose standards for internal space/layout (e.g. room sizes). Local plans cannot invent stricter space or room size criteria beyond the Nationally Described Space Standard.
- Local Plans cannot seek more than the statutory 10% Biodiversity Net Gain as a blanket approach. Greater than 10% can be sought on site specific allocations but this would need to have been tested as justified and deliverable.
- Local Plan requirements for contributions should not be set too high (e.g. an unreasonably high affordable housing percentage or costly design obligations) meaning that typical developments would become unviable.
- We may choose to ‘save’ a limited number of adopted local plan policies but not where the matter is already covered in national policies. We will go through a process of considering which, if any, adopted local plan policies should be saved. They must be necessary, justified and not conflict with national policies. If we save any policies, these are likely to be very Somerset specific. An example could be Policy ENV6: Wellington Burgage patterns from the Taunton Deane Sites and Development Management Plan. You may have a view on which these could be.
Some things fall outside the scope of the Local Plan because they are controlled by other regulations so do not suggest policies on these matters. The Local Plan cannot include policies on:
- Building regulations issues (e.g. construction standards, energy efficiency)
- Licensing matters (e.g. sale of alcohol, gambling licenses, street trading)
- Environmental Health matters (noisy neighbours, pollution, dog fouling)
- Day-to-day highways matters (e.g. potholes, parking restrictions, roadworks)
- Detailed street scene/neighbourhood level issues (e.g. litter, drains, grass cutting, high hedges)