New Forest National Park Local Plan Review 2025
We’ve started work on a review of the adopted New Forest National Park Local Plan (2019). The Local Plan sets out the local planning policy framework for the National Park area and guides decisions on planning applications submitted within the National Park.
The revised Local Plan will look forward to 2043 and is a key way through which the two statutory National Park purposes and related socio-economic duty are delivered.
We are at the first stage in the review of the Local Plan and have published a ‘Direction of Travel’ document setting out the areas we consider to be ‘in scope’ for review, as well as those areas of the adopted Local Plan that we consider remain consistent with the latest national planning policy. This was subject to public consultation in February and March 2025, which has now closed.
A timetable for the Local Plan Review, and future consultation periods, is set out in the Authority’s Local Development Scheme, which can be viewed here.
Call for Sites
As part of the initial work on the review of the Local Plan, we are also inviting local communities, landowners and developers to put forward sites they wish to be considered for residential, employment, Gypsy, Traveller and Travelling Showpeople and other uses (including environmental mitigation) within the National Park. Submitted sites will be assessed and the results will form part of the evidence base for the next stage in updating the New Forest National Park Local Plan. We will continue to accept site submissions until August 2025, when we will update the draft Local Plan Review, in advance of the Regulation 18 (part 2) consultation towards the end of the year.
To submit a site, please go to this page.
