City Plan 2019-2040 - Full Review

In Autumn 2025, the Planning Policy team began the initial scoping work for a full review of Westminster’s City Plan.

As part of this early stage, we asked internal teams for their insights on the current City Plan policies.

We’re keen to understand how effectively these policies are working in practice, to gather suggestions on where and how they could be improved and ideas for any new policies we should include.

The internal consultation ran from July 2025 to 20th November 2025.

About the project

Email

Timeline

Phase 1: Early scoping

August 2025 - October 2025

Early scoping and internal consultation. Before beginning Regulation 18 consultation for full review of the City Plan, the Planning Policy team is conducting internal consultation to take stock of how the current policies are performing and identify areas where updates or improvements may be needed. It provides an opportunity to gather key insights from across the council and begin shaping the direction of the revised plan.

Phase 2: Regulation 18

April 2026 - October 2027

Regulation 18 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 sets out the statutory early consultation requirements when preparing a new local plan. Under Regulation 18, the council must notify specified bodies and invite them to comment on what the new or updated local plan should contain, and raise any issues or options they think should be considered. This is stage includes policy drafting and evidence gathering.

Phase 3: Regulation 19

November 2027 - December 2028

Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 sets out the statutory consultation requirements when preparing a new local plan, before it is submitted for independent examination. Under Regulation 19, the council must notify the public, stakeholders, and statutory consultees and invite them to comment on whether the proposed policies in the draft new local plan are legally compliant, sound and have been prepared in accordance with the Duty to Cooperate. This stage includes reviews of Regulation 18 consultation outcomes, modifications to the draft policies and further collaboration with stakeholders.

Phase 4: Submission

December 2028 - July 2029

The submission stage is when the council formally submits the proposed draft local plan and all supporting documents to the Planning Inspectorate for independent examination. This is required under Regulation 22 of the 2012 Regulations. The inspector will then review the submission and assess whether the plan is legally compliant, sound (i.e. positively prepared, justified, effective, and consistent with national policy) and has been prepared in accordance with the Duty to Cooperate.

Phase 5: Examination and Adoption

July 2029 - February 2030

Following the submission of the local plan and accompanying documents, a Planning Inspector will conduct an independent examination of the submission and assess whether the plan is legally compliant, sound and has been prepared in accordance with the Duty to Cooperate. The Inspector will review all responses to the previous Regulation 19 consultation. There will also be a series of public hearing sessions where the Inspector will discuss key issues in more detail with the council and stakeholders. The Inspector may identify changes needed to make the plan sound (known as Main Modifications) leading to further policy refinement. Once these are agreed and consulted on, the final adoption draft of the City Plan can by adopted by the full council. The new local City Plan is then published.

News

Early consultation has now closed!

In Autumn 2025, the council began early consultation with internal colleagues to find out how well the current City Plan is working. We asked colleagues how effective the policies are, whether any pol

Posted:

View Update

Join our internal workshops

The Planning Policy team is holding 2 internal workshops in autumn 2025. Environment: Tuesday 16th September @ 1pm - 4pm This session will explore and define what is unique and valued about the City,

Posted:

View Update

Internal consultation on the City Plan 2019 – 2040 is now live

Westminster City Council is undertaking early, informal consultation in preparation for the City Plan Full Review 2026. This consultation aims to gather insights from internal members of staff at Wes

Posted:

View Update