I was recently reminded about the climate change requirements in the 2004 Planning Act (Inserted by section 182 of the 2008 Act): 182 Development plan documents: climate change policies In section 19 of PCPA 2004 (preparation of local development documents) after subsection (1) insert— “(1A) Development plan documents must (taken as a whole) include policies designed to secure that the development and use of land in the local planning authority's area contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.” This prompted me to remind myself about other legal requirements so I went looking for the Legal Compliance Tool (Self Assessment). The tool is available on this site (Home > Support > Making plans > Soundness self-assessment toolkit) The legal tool does not identify this requirement. Instead it has it in bold as a matter which is non-statutory but expected of councils.
