Resources Department

Spatial Regeneration

Planning policy

We prepare plans and strategies to guide and shape development in the borough.

Currently the Unitary Development Plan is the statutory development plan for Barking and Dagenham. The Unitary Development Plan was published in 1995 and provides guidance to:

Help people plan the use of their land sensibly
Regulate the development and use of land in the public interest

The Unitary Development Plan also has policies to make sure that public opinions are reflected in our policies relating to all development proposals and planning issues.

We also produce planning advice notes to accompany the policies set out in the Unitary Development Plan.

In September 2004 a major reform of the planning system was introduced to replace Unitary Development Plans with a Local Development Framework. The Local Development Framework will set out our policies for meeting the community's economic, environmental and social aims for the future, where this affects the development and use of land.

It will help us to decide what the best use of land and buildings should be and will influence how the borough will look and feel over the next 10-20 years.