The Local Plan and Planning Policy

Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council adopted the Nottinghamshire and Nottingham Waste Local Plan (2025) September/October 2025.

The adopted Waste Local Plan provides the future planning strategy for waste management in Nottinghamshire and Nottingham until 2038 and aims to provide sufficient capacity to meet future needs. It contains key policies against which future waste development will be assessed. It also forms part of the Local Development Framework for Nottingham City Council and the District and Boroughs in Nottinghamshire.

Full details of the adoption process are set out in the
Adoption Statement for Nottinghamshire County Council and 
Adoption Statement for Nottingham City Council.

For further details please visit the New Waste Local Plan | Nottinghamshire County Council

In Nottingham the Local Plan comprises the:

• Nottingham City Aligned Core Strategy - ACS (2014) (Part 1 Local Plan)
• Land and Planning Policies Document - LAPP (2020) (Part 2 Local Plan) and Policies Maps (Interactive or Static)
• the jointly prepared Nottinghamshire and Nottingham Waste Local Plan (2025).

The Adopted Local Plan

Nottingham’s development plan currently has two parts. Part 1 is the Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan, which sets out overall growth priorities across Nottingham, Broxtowe and Rushcliffe and was originally adopted as the Aligned Core Strategy in 2014. Part 2 is the Land and Planning Policies Document (2020), which provides the more detailed policies used to assess planning applications within the city.

The Strategic Plan (Part 1) is now being updated. The revised plan was submitted for examination in December 2025, with hearings taking place in July 2026. Once adopted, it will provide the main strategic framework for future growth across the wider area. More information on this can be found on the Greater Nottingham Planning Partnership website. 

At the same time, Nottingham City Council has started work on a new Local Plan under planning regulations introduced in 2026. These regulations change how local plans are structured by bringing together, in a single document, matters that were previously split in Nottingham between Part 1 (strategic policies) and Part 2 (detailed policies). In effect, the new Local Plan will replace the existing two-part system with a single, comprehensive plan. (Note: this plan will not replace the existing waste plan or emerging mineral plan.)

The new Local Plan will set out how Nottingham should grow and change over time, including where new homes, jobs, infrastructure and services should be located. This page will be updated as that work progresses. Further information is available on the Local Plan Review page. Further information is available on the Local Plan Review page. 

Approval has also been given to update the Minerals Local Plan in partnership with Nottinghamshire County Council. Further details on this will be provided on this website at a later date.

Local Plan Consultation and Latest News

Details of the latest news related to the Local Plan and current and past consultations.  

Greater Nottingham Consultation Database

To enable us to undertake consultations on the Local Plan and related documents we are setting up a joint consultation database with other Greater Nottingham councils (Broxtowe, Erewash, Gedling and Rushcliffe) to review the Aligned Core Strategy (Part 1 of the Local Plan). 

Further information including the necessary details you need to provide are available on the Greater Nottingham Consultation Database page.

Supplementary Planning Documents and Supplementary Planning Guidance

Details of Supplementary Planning Documents, Supplementary Planning Guidance, Design Quality Framework, Interim Planning Guidance, Development Briefs, Conservation Area Character Appraisal & Management Plans and Information Planning Guidance.

Nottingham is home to over 900 caves carved into the sandstone beneath the city. Nottingham has more caves than any other city in Europe.

These caves are of national archaeological and historical significance and are protected under Policy HE2 in the Nottingham Local Plan, 

Visit the Planning for Nottingham’s Caves page.

The page outlines:

• • The location and monitoring of caves
  • Planning and development guidance for sites involving caves
  • Advice on reuse and sustainable development
  • Legal and safety considerations
  • Links to key documents like the
    • Management of the Caves Supplementary Planning Guidance and
    • Technical Guide (2025).

Planning for Student Accommodation

A dedicated planning for student accommodation webpage that sets out details of monitoring and useful information about student accommodation in Nottingham including rental levels, and the location of student accommodation. 

Guidance for retail planning can be found at: Planning for Retail - Nottingham City Council  

Planning Policy & Research Team Privacy Notice

A copy of the Planning Policy & Research Team Privacy Notice is available by clicking the button above.

Local Plan and Planning Policy Accessibility Statement

A copy of the Local Plan and Planning Policy Accessibility Statement.

Section 106 Agreements

Section 106 agreements are legal agreements between a Council and developers; these are linked to planning permissions and can also be known as planning obligations.

Details about Nottingham City Council's requirements can be found on the S106 contributions web page.  The Council has a S106 Estimator tool to help calculate the likely contributions for certain forms of infrastructure in Nottingham.  The S106 costs are reviewed annual (around April each year), further details are set out on the Revised S106 Contributions webpage.

Other Local Plan related documents

List of other Local Plan related documents, including the Statement of Community Involvement (SCI), the Local Development Scheme (LDS), Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA) and the Authority Monitoring Report (AMR).

Useful External Planning Links

List of useful external links including the 2021 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), and related Planning Practice Guidance (PPG).

Use the buttons below to download CSV files of the Local Plan, Mineral and Waste data respectively. All data on these pages is provided under the Open Government Licence.

Local Plan Data

Minerals Local Plan Data

Waste Local Plan Data

Contacting the Local Plan Team

The Local Plan team are hybrid working and so you are advised to make initial contact by emailing localplan@nottinghamcity.gov.uk.