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The Hampstead Neighbourhood Plan
The new Hampstead Neighbourhood Plan 2025-2040 has been formally adopted by Camden Council, bringing to a successful end the Forum’s efforts to revise the previous Plan that was adopted in 2018.
The Council’s decision, taken at its regular meeting on 21 July 2025, means that the new Plan now enters into force, superseding the earlier document. The Plan takes its place alongside the Camden Local Plan and other statutory documents.
People making planning applications, and officials who make planning decisions, must observe the policies of the Neighbourhood Plan just as they do those of the Camden Local Plan.
The new Plan and its accompanying documents can be found here.
Hampstead’s is believed to be the first Neighbourhood Plan to be revised in London and one of the first in England. Neighbourhood planning was introduced under the Localism Act 2011 as a means of giving communities a greater say in the future of their areas.
While the Forum believed that the original plan had been effective, we felt that it needed to be modernised in order to stay up to date with local needs. Among these was a desire to improve sustainability and promote retrofitting, given the increased urgency of demands for energy efficiency created by climate change.
In addition, the new Plan includes new policies on considerate construction, biodiversity and water run-off. It provides guidance on the potential development of two major sites.
The new document was finalised following very wide consultation with local residents, and scrutiny by an independent examiner.
The examiner, Jill Kingaby, noted in her report that the Forum was one of the first in the country to review and revise a Neighbourhood Plan.
She wrote: “I commend the Forum for thinking ahead and seeking to achieve a new, up-to-date Plan for Hampstead….The plan-makers have clearly put in much time and effort to review all aspects…of the Plan, to understand their effectiveness since 2018, and identify where change is needed….I congratulate the Forum… and appreciate all the work that has been put into [it].”
