In United Kingdom planning law

Town and country planning in the United Kingdom

Town and Country Planning is the land use planning system governments use to balance economic development and environmental quality. Each country of the United Kingdom has its own planning system that is responsible for town and country planning devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly, the...

, a unitary development plan (UDP) is an old-style development plan prepared by a metropolitan district and some unitary local authorities

Unitary authority

A unitary authority is a type of local authority that has a single tier and is responsible for all local government functions within its area or performs additional functions which elsewhere in the relevant country are usually performed by national government or a higher level of sub-national...

 that contains policies equivalent to those in both a structure plan and a local plan. By virtue of specific transitional provisions, these plans will continue to operate for a time after the commencement of the new development plan system.

The unitary development plan is used at all stages of production and is reliant on criteria-based policies. Often contentious sites are proposed, which may generate significant opposition to the proposal. The existing system of UDPs makes it very difficult to provide a clearer framework.