Neighbourhood
Planning Support

Shape the future of your local area by creating a neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood development order.

Welcome to Neighbourhood Planning Support, where you’ll find everything you need to know about how to develop a neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood development order and what support is available to you.

**IMPORTANT NOTICE OF EARLIER APPLICATION DEADLINE FOR BOTH TECHNICAL SUPPORT AND GRANT THIS FINANCIAL YEAR (2024/2025)**

The continuing high demand for neighbourhood planning support means that we expect to have fully allocated support funding by the start of February 2025. Accordingly, the deadline for submitting applications for grant and Technical Support for the 2024/2025 (5pm on 31 January 2025) has now passed. Any applications received after this time will not be considered. We will also not be able to consider incomplete applications, so please read our guidance notes carefully.

If there is a high volume of applications for grant and Technical Support, it may be necessary to prioritise applications.

For grant this means considering applications on a first come first served basis. If your grant application is incomplete, or does not meet the eligibility requirements, it will not be considered. Please note, expenditure met through a grant must be completed on or before 31 March 2025.

The process for prioritising Technical Support applications already takes into account Government priorities such as housing, regeneration, climate change and environmental improvement but will also involve an assessment of the most time critical needs for individual packages of support in progressing neighbourhood plans. Please bear in mind that after we are shut to applications, unlike grant, Technical Support packages approved by MHCLG under the 2024/2025 programme do not have to be completed by end of March 2025 and delivery will continue into 2025/2026.

MHCLG has also confirmed the continued importance which the government attaches to supporting neighbourhood planning and on 1 October 2024 launched the procurement process for the new contract for Neighbourhood Planning Support Services for 2025 to 2027. We do not have any information about the service beyond the requirements set out in the procurement documents. MHCLG intend to sign the new contract in April 2025 for the new services to open from July 2025. We will update the website as soon as we have further advice on this from MHCLG. At this time, however, our Advice Service does not have any additional information, so please bear with us and do not contact us on this matter as we will not be able to add anything to this notice.

Celebrating 10 years of Neighbourhood Planning

Two people sit outside with bunting, smiling together. (c) Alex Brennan

We’re celebrating 10 years since the first neighbourhood plans were made.

Find out more

What support can I apply for?

You can apply for grant funding and/or Technical Support if you are eligible.

Grant funding

If you're working on a neighbourhood plan or neighbourhood development order, you can apply for grant funding of up to £10,000. Further grant funding is available to groups meeting certain criteria.

See grant funding

Technical Support

If you're facing complex issues such as allocating sites for development, you can apply for Technical Support where a specialist advisor will support you with specific issues or assessments.

Technical Support

Find what you need

A bird's eye view of a laptop, notebook, and an A4 size sheet of paper with charts on it.

Toolkits & Guidance

Find all the resources you need to guide you through the process of neighbourhood planning.

See toolkits & guidance
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Network

Need inspiration or want to know what others are doing around the country? Post questions, get support, and connect with the neighbourhood planning community.

See network
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Advice

Can't find what you're looking for? We'll help you find the answer to your questions.

See advice

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