Nottingham City Council is preparing to submit the long-awaited Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan (GNSP) to the Secretary of State for independent public examination, marking the next formal step towards adopting a new shared planning blueprint for the city, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe.
The plan sets out strategic policies and major site allocations to guide development across the Greater Nottingham area for the next 15 years, replacing the existing Aligned Core Strategies adopted more than a decade ago. The submission will be discussed at a full council meeting on 10 November, following parallel approvals being sought by Broxtowe and Rushcliffe borough councils.
The GNSP forms the first part of Nottingham’s statutory Local Plan and represents the culmination of extensive consultation, policy drafting and joint working since the first “Growth Options” exercise was published in 2020.
Under planning law, every local authority must maintain an up-to-date Local Plan to manage growth, support housing and employment delivery, and protect key environmental assets. Without one, planning decisions default to the national presumption in favour of sustainable development, removing much of the local discretion that councils currently exercise. Nottingham’s existing Part 1 Local Plan — the Greater Nottingham Aligned Core Strategies — was adopted in September 2014, followed by the city-specific Part 2 Land and Planning Policies Document in January 2020. These now require replacement to align with the government’s reformed planning system.
The new Strategic Plan has been produced jointly by Nottingham City Council, Broxtowe Borough Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council after Gedling Borough Council withdrew from the partnership earlier this year. Gedling’s decision, taken in February 2025, followed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and new housing requirement calculations introduced through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023. Those reforms substantially altered the way local housing targets are set, leading Gedling to conclude that preparing its own Local Plan would provide greater flexibility to meet its revised housing numbers. The remaining councils have continued under transitional arrangements that allow joint plans already in progress to proceed under the pre-reform system, avoiding duplication of effort and the loss of a shared evidence base that has taken years to assemble.
City Council officers emphasise that despite Gedling’s withdrawal, the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan continues to have “substantially the same effect” on the remaining districts as before. Its overarching vision — to deliver sustainable growth through new homes, jobs, transport links and environmental protection across the conurbation — remains intact. Only minor textual and policy deletions have been made to remove Gedling-specific references and site allocations. The fundamental spatial strategy, housing distribution, and key development locations for Nottingham, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe are unchanged.
The plan’s submission follows a series of major public consultations on successive drafts, including the Preferred Approach version and two Regulation 19 Publication versions in November 2024 and March 2025. The March consultation reflected the revised partnership arrangement and updated housing figures for Broxtowe and Rushcliffe. Hundreds of statutory bodies, developers, community groups and individual residents provided feedback, which has shaped the final submission version and informed a detailed Report of Consultation. All representations and evidence base studies will now be forwarded to the Secretary of State for consideration by an independent Planning Inspector.
Among the main technical adjustments made since the earlier drafts is the proposed removal of Stanton Tip, off the A52, as a strategic housing site. The land had been earmarked for up to 500 homes but subsequent investigations revealed significant contamination and topographical constraints. Following representations from the site’s promoters and Homes England, the councils accepted that it would no longer meet the threshold for a strategic allocation. It will remain, however, within Nottingham’s local Part 2 Land and Planning Policies Document, leaving the potential for smaller-scale development in the future once remediation issues are addressed.
The independent examination, which could begin early next year, will test the soundness and legal compliance of the plan and is expected to involve several public hearing sessions led by a government-appointed Planning Inspector. The councils have formally requested that the Inspector be empowered to recommend modifications if necessary to make the plan sound under Section 20(7C) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. This mechanism allows further technical changes to be incorporated during the examination process without restarting from scratch. Nottingham City Council’s Director of Planning and Transport will also have delegated authority to make minor factual or editorial updates for consistency and to consult on any additional modifications required by the Inspector before the plan is adopted.
The new plan will provide the overarching framework for how Nottingham and its neighbouring districts manage growth, housing and employment land supply up to around 2041. It will sit alongside more detailed local plans that set out development management policies, and together they will influence everything from housing allocations and green belt boundaries to transport infrastructure and climate resilience. City Council officers note that the plan underpins the authority’s wider priorities to improve infrastructure, enhance education and skills, champion sustainability and revitalise the local economy — key aims within its “Leading Nottingham Forward” mission.
The report acknowledges that preparing and submitting the plan carries certain risks, notably that it could be found unsound by the Inspector or become subject to early review once the new planning system is fully implemented. To mitigate these risks, the council intends to begin work on a successor Local Plan in 2026 once the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act’s secondary legislation is enacted. The GNSP, however, will provide an essential interim framework and ensure that Nottingham and its partners retain control over major development decisions in the short to medium term. Without it, planning applications across the area would be assessed solely against the NPPF, potentially undermining local objectives for housing mix, environmental protection and infrastructure delivery.
Financially, the examination costs will be met from existing reserves, and the process is not expected to place pressure on the council’s medium-term budget. Legal officers have confirmed that all statutory requirements appear to have been followed, and that the approval to submit the plan is a non-executive function reserved to full council under the Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) Regulations 2000. The city’s Corporate Landlord service has also been involved throughout, particularly where strategic sites such as the Broad Marsh regeneration area could bring forward new homes, employment and capital receipts for the council.
Once the Inspector’s report is received, the plan will return to each participating authority for formal adoption. If found sound, it will become part of the statutory development plan for Nottingham, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe, carrying full weight in the determination of planning applications. For Nottingham City Council, this milestone marks both the conclusion of years of technical work and the start of a new phase in shaping how the city grows and changes over the next generation.
