The Cornwall Local Plan

The Cornwall Local Plan

You can download the adopted Cornwall Local Plan below

• Adopted Cornwall Local Plan Strategic Policies
• Cornwall Local Plan: Community Network Area Sections
• Policies Maps

The Cornwall Local Plan was formally adopted in November 2016. It provides a positive and flexible planning policy framework for Cornwall up to 2030.

The Adoption Statement and background documents are available to download below:

• Statement of Adoption
• Cornwall Local Plan Sustainability Appraisal Adoption Statement
• Cornwall Local Plan Inspector's Report
• Schedule of Major Modifications

Presumption in favour of sustainable development

Government’s new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) came into force on 12th December 2024. This sets out revised guidance and policies for planning across England.

Government published a standard housing method alongside the NPPF. This is the method that we must use to understand how many new homes should be built each year in Cornwall. We must now plan for 4,421 homes in Cornwall instead of the 2,707 that we have been planning for under the current Local Plan.

Where a plan is more than 5 years old, we must be able to show that the plan can meet the new housing requirement of 4,421 homes per year for it to remain ‘up to date’.

We have concluded that this is not currently possible and on that basis some of our policies in the Local Plan will be considered ‘out of date’ for decision making. However, where our policies remain consistent with the NPPF they can continue to be used for decision making.  This is true of the majority of our policies across the Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plans.

We have now published an Interim Policy Position Statement for consultation. This sets out how we will continue to use the Local Plan to make planning decisions.

Saved Policies

Some policies from previous plans remain saved. These include policies from:

• the Local plans of the former District and Borough Councils
• the Minerals and Waste Plans of the former County Council

All saved policies are listed in the Cornwall Local Plan (2016) Saved Policies document. Related maps and inset maps are also available.