National planning policy is principally contained in 'Planning Policy Guidance Notes' (PPGs). These provide guidance on the operation of the 'plan-led' system introduced under the 1990 Town and Country Planning Act. This Act reaffirms that the planning system (in particular 'development plans') regulates the development and use of land in the public interest. PPGs also stress the need to integrate transport programmes with land-use policies in order to "achieve more sustainable patterns of development and to help reduce the environmental impacts of transport" (PPG1, paragraph 23).

The proposal for a New Tyne Crossing has been considered through the development plan process and its allocation in the South Tyneside and North Tyneside Unitary Development Plans (UDPs), both now adopted, provides a great deal of weight to the proposal in terms of statutory planning. Promotion of the New Tyne Crossing through both development plans and transport plans accords with the aims of national policy to link planning and transport.

PPG13 deals with transport and aims to promote more sustainable transport choices and better accessibility to jobs (and other land uses), acknowledging that "the car will continue to have an important part to play…" (PPG13, paragraph 5).

The policies and proposals of the South Tyneside UDP seek to restructure the economic base, improve the Borough's image, increase private sector investment in the area and improve employment opportunities.

The New Tyne Crossing is supported in both the North Tyneside and South Tyneside UDPs,. Congestion at the Tyne Tunnel is referred to as often causing lengthy delays causing environmental problems and impeding traffic movement across the Tyne. Therefore, improvements are important for the achievement of both transport and economic objectives of the plans.

Regional Planning Guidance for the North East (RPG1) echoes the aims of national guidance, principally "providing accessibility to key facilities throughout the region for all sections of the population in support of economic development, opportunity and regeneration" (paragraph 5.5). In particular, the RPG highlights the need to invest in upgrading specific trunk roads to reduce congestion, improve safety and improve access to key sites, including increasing the road capacity across the Tyne. This is seen as important to improving regional competitiveness and promoting regeneration. Additionally, the New Tyne Crossing is a key project in providing a "high quality public transport and road network", which is one of the over-riding aims of the Regional Economic Strategy.

The Local Transport Plan for Tyne and Wear aims to complement both regional and local planning policy. It describes the New Tyne Crossing as a 'Major Scheme' which is considered to be "…one of the more important transportation projects to be completed during the life of the first Local Transport Plan" (section 4.5). The plan identifies the main problems of the tunnel as being peak hour delays that are typically between 20 minutes and one hour, creating localised noise and air pollution, and spread of congestion onto local roads and onto
other crossings.

Local planning policy is set out in the North Tyneside UDP (adopted March 2002), and the South Tyneside UDP (adopted October 1999). One of the principal objectives of the North Tyneside UDP is to bolster the local economy and provide security of employment, prioritising the A19 corridor and Longbenton/Killingworth where there are a large number of sites allocated for employment use. The UDP also aims to ensure that North Tyneside residents have optimum access to these employment opportunities.