In United Kingdom planning law, a unitary development plan (UDP) is a

development plan A development plan sets out a local authority's policies and proposals for land use in their area. The term is usually used in the United Kingdom. A local plan is one type of development plan. The development plan guides and shapes day-to-day de ...

prepared by a

metropolitan district A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropol ...

London Borough The London boroughs are the current 32 districts of England, local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London, England; each is governed by a London borough council. The present ...

or some unitary local authorities.

Background

UDPs contains policies equivalent to those in both a structure plan and a

local plan A development plan sets out a local authority's policies and proposals for land use in their area. The term is usually used Town and country planning in the United Kingdom, in the United Kingdom. A local plan is one type of development plan. The d ...

. UDPs were introduced by the

Local Government Act 1985 The Local Government Act 1985 (c. 51) is an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. Its main effect was to abolish the six county councils of the metropolitan county, metropolitan counties that had been set up by the Local Government Act 1972, ...

and were produced up to around 2004, when the

Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 The Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (c. 5) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was promoted by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. It substantially reforms the town planning and compulsory purchase framework i ...

replaced them with Local Plans. By virtue of specific transitional provisions, some plans are still in effect as of 2020. The unitary development plan was used at all stages of production and is reliant on criteria-based policies. Often contentious sites are proposed, which may generate significant opposition to the proposal. The existing system of UDPs makes it very difficult to provide a clearer framework.

Purpose

An example statement describing the purpose of a UDP from

Salford City Council Salford City Council is the Local government in England, local authority for the City of Salford, a metropolitan borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater Manchester, England. It is a metropolitan borough council and ...

The unitary development plan (UDP) is a statutory document that sets out the council's planning policies that will be used to guide development, conservation, regeneration and environmental improvement activity in Salford.

References

Housing in the United Kingdom United Kingdom planning policy {{UK-planning-stub