1. Introduction to the Exeter Plan
The City Council submitted the Exeter Plan, the new local plan for Exeter, to the Planning Inspectorate on Friday 26 September 2025 for examination. All documents submitted with the Exeter Plan are published in these webpages. View earlier stages of plan preparation.
On behalf of the Government, the Planning Inspectorate will examine whether the Exeter Plan accords with planning law and national planning policy and is suitable for adoption.
The dates for the examination hearings set by the Planning Inspectorate are as follows:
- Week 1: Tuesday 3 March 2026 to Friday 6 March 2026
- Week 2: Tuesday 10 March 2026 to Friday 13 March 2026
- Week 3: Tuesday 12 May 2026 to Friday 15 May 2026
- Week 4: Tuesday 19 May 2026 to Friday 22 May 2026
Weeks 1 to 3 will be held at the Rennes Room in the Civic Centre, Exeter, with Week 4 being held virtually. For more information surrounding the examination hearings please see the Inspectors' Documents page.
For guidance on the examination process, see the Planning Inspectorate's Procedure Guide for Local Plan Examinations and Local Plans: Taking part in examinations.
Inspectors:
The Planning Inspectorate has appointed C Coyne (BA (Hons), DipTP, MRTPI) and K McDonald (MSc, MRTPI) as the Inspectors to carry out the examination.
Programme officer:
Robert Young has been appointed as Programme Officer to organise and administer the examination, including organisation of the public hearing sessions and dealing with all procedural matters.
The Programme Officer is independent from Exeter City Council and reports to the appointed examination inspector(s).
Robert Young can be contacted at robert.l.young@exeter.gov.uk or 07516 975542.
Attending the examination hearing sessions:
For Weeks 1 to 3, the hearings will take place in the Rennes Room on the ground floor of the Civic Centre. The hearings will be completely accessible.
Arrival time: Please arrive at least 5 minutes before the scheduled start times of 9.30am, 10am or 2pm. There will be an arrival window starting 30 minutes before the start of the session, from 9am, 9.30am or 1.30pm for the respective morning or afternoon sessions during which it will be possible to enter the building. Staff will be on hand to assist access during this time, until 15 minutes after the hearing has begun.
Please note that the main reception is closed from 2pm daily, so please look for signs directing you to the ‘Exeter Plan Examination Hearing’.
How to get into the building: When you arrive at the Civic Centre, please look for Exeter Plan Examination Hearing signs directing you to the rear of the building to access the Rennes Room. Please enter the Civic Centre via the rear entrance rather than the main reception.
- Walk along the ‘one way’ road to the right of the main entrance to the building, passing under a footbridge then turn left.
- After turning left after the footbridge, pass through the service area at the rear of the building until you reach a ramp leading up to a set of glass double doors on your left.
- There will be a member of staff to let you into the building at the start of the morning and afternoon sessions. There will also be a sign on the door indicating you are in the right place. Once you enter the building, follow the corridor around to the left. The Rennes Room will be on your left.
- There will be signs to direct you.
Virtual hearing sessions:
For Week 4 the hearings will take place virtually via Microsoft Teams. Those participating in the meeting will have received a link to the Teams meeting. For non-participants who wish to observe the meeting, it will now be viewable via a Teams meeting link.
Examination news:
10 August 2026: Please note the ‘Economic Development Needs Assessment (EDNA) Final Report’ evidence base document (Ref. EVB-EJ-03a) includes some rogue references to ‘Appendix seven’. This is the market overview work carried out by JLL which has been presented as a separate document ‘Economic Development Needs Assessment (EDNA) Market overview’ (Ref. EVB-EJ-03b).
22 June 2026: Additional statements covering various matters from a range of examination participants and the Council have been published in the Examination documents section of the website.
26 May 2026: Recordings of the Virtual Examination Hearings are now available on the Exeter City Council YouTube page. For access and more information see the Recordings of the Virtual Examination Hearings section.
20 May 2026: Change in the format of the virtual final Examination Hearing, all participants and observers should join via the Microsoft Teams link above.
20 May 2026: The Examination Inspectors have provided an agenda for the Examination Hearing wrap-up session (INS-14). This has been published in the Inspectors' Documents section.
18 May 2026: Virtual hearings will take place this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Participants should join via the link sent to their email address and non-participants can observe by visiting the live stream on the Exeter City Council YouTube page.
08 May 2026: Additional documents provided by Exeter City Council to the Exeter Plan examination have been published in the Post-Submission Documents section. See the Schedule of documents provided to the Examination post-submission (EXM-01) for more information.
27 April 2026: Hearing statements submitted to the Exeter Plan examination have been published in the Hearing Statements section. This includes statements for Matters 9-15 submitted by Exeter City Council, participants in the examination hearing sessions, and other representors.
26 April 2026: The Examination Inspectors have provided an updated Hearing Programme (INS-07c). This has been published in the Inspectors' Documents section.
17 April 2026: Additional documents provided by Exeter City Council to the Exeter Plan examination have been published in the Post-Submission Documents section. See the Schedule of documents provided to the Examination post-submission (EXM-01) for more information.
3 March - 12 March 2026: First set of examination hearings held.
6 March 2026: Additional documents requested by the Examination Inspectors during the Week 1 examination hearing sessions have been published in the Examination Documents section.
25 February 2026: The Examination Inspectors have provided an updated Hearing Programme (INS-07b). This has been published in the Inspectors' Documents section.
17 February 2026: Hearing statements submitted to the Exeter Plan examination have been published in the Hearing Statements section. This includes statements for Matters 1-9 submitted by Exeter City Council, participants in the examination hearing sessions, and other representors.
11 February 2026: An additional document submitted to the Exeter Plan examination has been published in the Post-Submission Documents section. See the Schedule of documents provided to the Examination post-submission (EXM-01) for more information.
6 February 2026: The Examination Inspectors have provided an updated Hearing Programme (INS-07a) confirming the participants for each examination hearing session. This has been published in the Inspectors' Documents section.
2 February 2026: The Examination Inspectors have extended to 24 April the deadline for the submission of Matter 9 hearing statements relating to Policies SBA1, SBA2, SBA3, SBA4, SBA5 and TI1. Matter 9 hearing statements relating to Policy H2 should still be submitted by 13 February as set out in the Inspectors' Examination Guidance Note (INS-05).
30 January 2026: Additional documents provided by Exeter City Council to the Exeter Plan examination have been published in the Post-Submission Documents section. See the Schedule of documents provided to the Examination post-submission (EXM-01) for more information.
06 January 2026: An Examination Guidance Note (INS-05), Matters, Issues and Questions (INS-06) and Hearing Programme (INS-07) documents are available in the Inspectors' Documents section. These documents have also been sent out to all participants of the hearings.
16 December 2025: Additional documents provided by Exeter City Council to the Exeter Plan examination have been published in the Post-Submission Documents section. See the Schedule of documents provided to the Examination post-submission (EXM-01) for more information.
17 October 2025: The Planning Inspectorate appointed C Coyne (BA (Hons), DipTP, MRTPI) and K McDonald (MSc, MRTPI) as the Inspectors to carry out the examination.
26 September 2025: Exeter City Council submitted the Exeter Plan to the Planning Inspectorate for examination.