Liverpool’s planning policies are being streamlined to drive forward the city's economic growth.

It is to adopt a system in which it will develop a Local Plan to deliver the housing, business, industrial units and infrastructure the city needs over the next 15 years at least.

Under the government's new National Planning Policy Framework every local planning authority is expected to deliver sustainable economic growth through up to date Local Plans which will contain strategies and initiatives to achieve their aims.

Liverpool's Local Plan is aimed at delivering over 40,000 new homes and 300 hectares of land for industrial and commercial use by 2028.

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It will replace a system in which a number of plans–including the Core Strategy –and other development plan documents were being produced.

At the heart of the new Local Plan will be the city's Core Strategy, approved by the City Council in 2012, and which sets out the Council’s vision for planning the city and the policies to deliver that vision.

Councillor Malcolm Kennedy, cabinet member for regeneration, said: "This approach will make the production of our planning policies more effective and quicker. Having them all together in one document will also make them easier to understand and use.

"We have to ensure that we have a plan which can drive the city forward despite the current recession and deliver the Mayoral priorities for growth.

"The Local Plan will set out clearly how we can achieve this. It will embed the core strategy which we have already approved and which sets out the way forward for city in the next couple of decades.

"It will be a very important document to guide the development of Liverpool at a crucial time."

(CD/GK)