Bromley has restarted its Local Plan under the new planning system, with adoption now due in September 2029. Land can be put forward until 21 December.
Bromley Council has started its new Local Plan again from the beginning, and the plan is now not expected to be adopted until September 2029. The first step is a call for sites, open until 21 December 2026, in which landowners, developers and residents can put forward land for future homes, jobs or open space.
The council announced the restart on Tuesday 10 November. It had been writing the plan under the old national system and had planned to submit it for examination by December 2026. That deadline has now gone.
Why the old plan stalled
The council says its draft was held up because it was waiting for the Greater London Authority to set the borough’s new housing target in the next London Plan. Once the figure arrived, it asked the Government for six more months to finish under the old rules. The old system closes in December. The council says the Government did not give permission, so it has had to begin again under the new one.
Councillor Yvonne Bear, the council’s Executive Councillor for Renewal, Recreation and Housing, said: “We are extremely disappointed that Bromley is required to start the Local Plan process again under the new system due to delays beyond our control in the publication of the emerging London Plan housing targets and the Government’s refusal to give us a six month extension.”
She added that the council would “press ahead with haste” and that its priorities remain “protecting our precious green spaces and the character of our borough by seeking to make the best possible use of our brownfield land”.
The work already done is not lost from view, but it no longer counts towards the new plan. The council has archived the documents from the old review, which included a Call for Sites in 2021, an Issues and Options consultation in 2023 and a Direction of Travel consultation in summer 2025. They are available on request from localplan@bromley.gov.uk, according to the council’s new Local Plan page.
The new timetable
Under the new system a Local Plan has to be prepared within 30 months. The council published its Local Plan Timetable and a Notice of Intention to Commence on 10 November. The expected dates are:
| Stage | Expected date |
|---|---|
| Call for sites closes | 21 December 2026 |
| Scoping consultation | 12 January to 2 February 2027 |
| Consultation on proposed plan content and evidence | 1 February to 14 March 2028 |
| Consultation on the proposed Local Plan | 12 September to 7 November 2028 |
| Submitted for examination | 6 March 2029 |
| Adoption | 10 September 2029 |
The council says it will update the timetable if dates change and record the actual date each stage is reached.
How the housing target has moved
The draft London Plan, published for consultation in July 2026, gives Bromley a target of 8,283 homes over the ten years from 2027/28 to 2036/37. All of them are expected on brownfield land, with no greenfield figure for the borough, according to Table 3.1 of the draft.
The current London Plan sets Bromley 7,740 homes over ten years, according to Table 4.1 of the London Plan 2021. The draft figure is 543 homes higher, a rise of about 7 per cent.
What the call for sites is
The call for sites page asks for land that could be used for:
- housing, including specialist housing
- employment or commercial uses
- community facilities and infrastructure
- open space, green infrastructure or biodiversity improvements
- Gypsy and Traveller accommodation
Every site will be assessed against the same criteria in a Strategic Land Availability Assessment, and the findings will be published later in the process. The council stresses that putting land forward does not mean it will be allocated, or that the council supports building on it. Submissions use an online form, one per site.
What it means for you
The Bromley Local Plan adopted in January 2019 stays in force, alongside the London Plan, while the new one is written. Day-to-day applications are still decided against those policies. Our guide to Bromley planning applications explains how to find and comment on them.
If you own land, or know of an underused site you think should be considered for homes, a community use or new green space, you have until 21 December to put it forward.
Residents get their first formal say in the three-week scoping consultation from 12 January 2027. That is the stage at which the council asks what the plan should cover. The consultations that name actual sites come later, in 2028.
Have your say