Only four out of 55 local authorities have adopted an updated local plan as part of their statutory five-year review of the document, research by Lichfields has indicated.

The planning and development consultancy found that while 47 out of 55 (85%) local authorities that adopted a local plan in 2016/17 and 2017/18 complied with the requirement to review their local plans within five years, so far only 7% of them adopted an updated local plan as a result.

The report points out that as there is no set timescale within which a plan must be updated following a statutory review, this can result in delays in updating local plans.