Revisions to the system

Moving on from the previous system
The legislation on regional spatial strategies came into effect in September 2004.

Previous regional planning guidance documents were re-labelled as

Regional spatial strategies (RSS).

After that, work done to prepare regional spatial strategies under the new law involved 'revisions' of this inherited strategy, except in London where the London Plan, published in February 2004, was the first city-wide plan for 30 years.

Timings of revisions
There is no guidance on how often the strategy should be revised.

Regional planning bodies must prepare draft revisions 'when they think it is necessary or when the secretary of state instructs them.

All regions will have adopted regional spatial strategies by the end of 2008.

Revisions might then be prompted by a change in national policy, because a policy is not working or because of information gathered for the annual monitoring report.

The time taken to review a strategy partly depends on whether there is an examination in public.

There is a risk that the planning body may propose a series of relatively modest revisions and then pressure the secretary of state not to require an examination in public into each one.

To stop this from happening, you could speak to the regional planning body or the Government Office for the region and ask for there to be consultation.

Replacing structure plans
Regional spatial strategies are largely replacing structure plans as well as regional planning guidance.

The county council will comment on the strategy and will advise on whether planning decisions and local plans are in conformity with it.

Structure plans will be kept under the new system for up to three years or until their policies are replaced if that is earlier.

Structure plan policies could be replaced by regional spatial strategy revisions, by local development frameworks, or by both.

Draft revisions should state which structure plan policies they are replacing.

The examination in public will make sure that the replacement policies are good enough. Policies not specifically kept by the regional spatial strategy will lapse after three years unless the secretary of state explicitly extends their life. (For a commentary, see PPS 11, paragraphs 2.54-60)