Publish your development plan data
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 requires local planning authorities to publish their data on the status of emerging development plans on their website and that it must be kept up to date.
You must make sure your data is:
- published in the agreed format and contains the required data
- kept up to date
- easily found online
Make your data findable, usable and trustworthy
Development plans are an important part of sustainable local planning and development. Data on development plans has a wide range of uses, including:
- planning for housing-led development
- creating new digital services
- giving community members insight into local development
But for data to be useful it must be easy to find, use, understand and trust. You should ensure that your development plan data is all of these by following this guidance on the data format and the publication process.
What you need to publish
There are 4 datasets you must provide for development plans:
- development plan
- development plan geography
- development plan timetable
- development plan document
The development plan, development plan timetable and development plan document datasets should be provided as a CSV file. You can provide the development plan geography data in one of these formats:
- CSV
- GeoJSON
- GML
- Geopackage
For more information, see how to provide your data.
Development plan dataset
This dataset is about your development plan. A development plan sets out a vision and a framework for the future development of the area.
The dataset must contain at least one entry (row) for each development plan.
It must contain the following fields (columns):
reference
A unique identifier for your development plan that is:
- unique within your dataset
- permanent - it doesn't change when the dataset is updated
If you don't use a reference already, you’ll need to create one. This can be a short set of letters or numbers.
Example: DPO1
name
This will be the title of the page hosting data about the name of the development plan on our website.
Example: adopted-local-plan-for-leeds
description
A brief description of the development plan.
development-plan-type
The reference to the type of plan this is. This should be one of the options listed here.
period-start-date
The start date of the period the plan covers. The more precise you can be the better, but if you only have a month or year just give us that.
Example: 2019-01-20
period-end-date
The end date of the period the plan covers.
Example: 2035-01-20
development-plan-geography
The reference code for the geography the plan covers.
Example: DPGO1
documentation-url
The URL of the web page where you can find information about the plan.
On GOV.UK these pages are called publication cover pages - the document itself is an HTML document or PDF and the cover page lists the document title and a short summary of what the document is about.
Example: http://www.LPAwebsite.org.uk/local-plan-for-leeds
adopted-date
The date a plan is officially adopted.
Example: 2023-01-20
organisations
A list of references for the responsible organisations, separated by ;
entry-date
The date this information has been entered as a record.
Example: 2024-01-20
start-date
The date the validity of the record starts.
Example: 2024-01-20
end-date
The date the validity of the record ends.
Example: 2035-01-20
Development plan geography dataset
This dataset is about development plan geography. This shows the area covered by the development plan. The dataset must contain at least one entry (row) for each development plan. It must contain the following fields (columns):
reference
A unique identifier for your development plan geography that is:
- unique within your dataset
- permanent - it doesn't change when the dataset is updated
If you don't use a reference already, you will need to create one. This can be a short set of letters or numbers.
Example: DPGO1
name
This is the name of the development plan geography.
Example: Leeds local plan boundary
geometry
The boundary for the development plan geography as a single polygon or multipolygon value. All points in the polygon should be in the WGS84 coordinate reference system if possible. If you can’t do this, give us what you have and then we can transform it into WGS84. However, this could mean there’s a small loss of precision when we do the transformation. If you’re providing geometry in a CSV, geometry should be in well-known text (WKT).
Example: MULTIPOLYGON (((1.188829 51.23478,1.188376 51.234909,1.188381 51.234917,1.187912 51.235022...
If you’re providing geometry in a GeoJSON, GML or Geopackage, use the associated geometry format.
development-plan-geography-type
What sort of geography type this is.
This should be one of these 3 options:
planning-authority-district(the boundary of the planning authority)combined-planning-authority-district(when there's a joint plan and the boundary covers 2 or more authority boundaries)designated-plan-area(when the plan covers an alternative area)
description
A description of your development plan geography.
Examples: The boundary of Leeds planning authority
Tower Hamlets authority area minus the site covered by the Olympic Development Corporation area
entry-date
The date the entity was last updated.
If the entity has never been updated, enter the same date as start-date.
Write in YYYY-MM-DD format.
Example: 2024-02-20
start-date
The date that the development plan boundary was first announced, written in YYYY-MM-DD format. Don’t worry if you don’t know the exact date, just the month and year is fine.
Example: 1984-03-28
end-date
If applicable, the date that the geographic area for the plan was no longer in effect, written in YYYY-MM-DD format. If it's still current, leave the cell blank.
Example: 1999-01-20
Development plan timetable
This dataset is about your development plan timetable. A development plan timetable sets out the approximate timing for preparing a new development plan and supporting documents.
The data must contain at least one record for each event in the plan-making process.
Each record must contain the following fields:
reference
A unique identifier for your development plan that is:
- unique within your dataset
- permanent - it doesn't change when the dataset is updated
If you don't use a reference already, you will need to create one. This can be a short set of letters or numbers.
Example: DPTO1-consultation-start
name
This is the name of the event in the plan-making process.
Example: Leeds local plan consultation start
development-plan
The reference for a particular development plan.
Example: adopted-local-plan-for-leeds
development-plan-event
The reference for a development plan event. This should be one of the options listed here
Example: plan-adopted
event-date
The date this event happened.
Example: 2024-01-20
notes
Optional notes
organisation
A list of references for the responsible organisations, separated by ;
entry-date
The date this information has been entered as a record.
Example: 2024-01-20
start-date
The date the validity of the record starts.
Example: 2024-01-20
end-date
The date the validity of the record ends.
Example: 2035-01-20
Development plan document dataset
This dataset is about your development plan documents. Development plan documents are planning policy documents which make up the development plan.
The dataset must contain at least one entry (row) for each development plan document.
It must contain the following fields (columns):
reference
A unique reference for each development plan document that is:
- unique within your dataset
- permanent - it doesn't change when the dataset is updated
If you don't use a reference already, you will need to create one. This can be a short set of letters or numbers.
Example: DPDO1-adoption-statement
name
The name of this document.
Example: Leeds adoption statement
description
Brief description of this document.
Example: Adoption statement document 2024
development-plan
The reference for your development plan that these documents relate to.
Example: adopted-local-plan-for-leeds
document-type
The reference for this document type
Example: policies‑map
documentation-url
The URL of the web page where you can find the documentation for the plan.
Example: http://www.LPAwebsite.org.uk/local-plan-for-leeds
document-url
The URL of the web page where you can find the document for the plan.
Example: http://www.LPAwebsite.org.uk/local-plan-for-leeds/newlocalplan.pdf
organisation
A list of references for the responsible organisations, separated by ;
entry-date
The date this information has been entered as a record.
Example: 2024-01-20
start-date
The date the validity of the record starts.
Example: 2024-01-20
end-date
The date the validity of the record ends.
Example: 2035-01-20