.jpg "Image illustrating Government updates National Planning Policy Framework")
The Government has updated the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) for England in order to introduce several key policy changes with a focus on house building and affordable homes.
The NPPF contains the key national planning policies that shape development and decisions on planning applications. The UK is currently suffering from a housing shortage and despite the fact the NPPF has been changed a number of times to try and address this, the situation has not improved. Matthew Pennycook, Minister for Housing and Planning, said "The average new home is out of reach for the average worker, housing costs consume a third of private renters’ income, and the number of children in temporary accommodation now stands at a historic high of nearly 160,000. Yet just 220,000 new homes were built last year and the number of homes granted planning permission has fallen to its lowest in a decade."
When elected into office, the Labour Government launched a consultation on proposed changes to the NPPF. This consultation has fuelled the newest update to the NPPF, which contains several changes in different areas. We've included more information about some of these changes below.
Planning for new homes
The new NPPF reverses a change made in December 2023 in order to remove a reference to exceptional circumstances in which the use of alternative approaches to assess housing need would be appropriate. Instead, the Government is opting to move the planning system towards meeting housing need in full and having a mandatory standard method, set out in planning practice guidance, to assess housing need will help achieve that.
The Government has taken the opportunity to restore mandatory housing targets. As a result, the standard method must be used as the basis for determining housing need in local areas, and this must be addressed in local plans.
At the same time, the Government has scrapped provisions that required a 35% urban uplift. This resulted in skewed national distribution, meaning more focus ended up on London than anywhere else in England. There was also concern that uplift did not consider a range of other factors, such as boundaries and specific constraints such as the Green Belt. The new standard method relies on a baseline set at a percentage of existing housing stock levels. This should better reflect housing pressures across the country.
Policies suggesting that uplifts in the density of residential developments could be inappropriate if the resulting built form would be out of character with the existing area have been scrapped. It was felt that this policy could be used to refuse development that would normally be considered sustainable, whilst other parts of the NPPF exist to make sure density and local character are considered in the planning process.
The Government has also removed its Annual Position Statement policy. Such statements were required to set out the five year housing land supply position on 1 April each year. Where local authorities have already confirmed its housing and land supply through such a statement that has been examined by the Planning Inspectorate, the position will stand until the Statement expires.
Brownfield, grey belt and the Green Belt
The Government's policy position is that brownfield development should always take place first over development on the Green Belt, countryside and agricultural land. It has therefore changed policy to make the default answer to brownfield land proposed development 'yes'. This means development on brownfield land should be approved unless substantial harm would be caused. In addition, the definition of 'previously developed' land (i.e. brownfield land) has been extended to include hard standing.
However, there are not enough brownfield sites on brownfield land register to deliver the number of homes needed every year. There is also an issue with some of the available land being unviable and in the wrong locations. As a result, the Government has introduced the concept of 'grey belt' land, defined as "land in the Green Belt comprising previously developed land and/or any other land" as long as those land areas are not strongly contributing to three of the five listed purposes of the Green Belt. So, where it is necessary to release Green Belt land for development, priority should be given first to previously developed land, then to grey belt land and finally to other Green Belt locations. Housing can only be built on Green Belt land if developers deliver high levels of affordable housing, appropriate local infrastructure and accessible public green spaces. In addition, development on Green Belt land should be in line with policies on sustainable transport.
Delivering affordable homes
The NPPF has received some wider changes to make sure local planning authorities can prioritise the affordable homes that their communities need. As such, the planning system will support a more diverse housebuilding sector. As a result:
Infrastructure and the economy
The Government originally proposed that the planning system should be used to drive greater commercial development in the sectors that will be at the heart of the UK's future economy. The NPPF has been changed to support growth in areas such as laboratories, gigafactories, data centres, digital economies and freight and logistics.
Delivering community needs
Further changes focus on the desire to deliver community needs. Changes aim to support society and the creation of health places and adopting a 'vision led' approach to transport planning. As such, amendments have been made to policies covering educational buildings, hospitals and emergency service facilities.
Policy changes in this area aim to promote good health and prevent ill health, especially where it would reduce health inequalities between the most and least deprived communities.
Supporting green energy and the environment
The NPPF has been amended to provide further support to clean energy and the environment. This is achieved through increased support for onshore wind and renewables. In particular, the Government has announced that onshore wind projects will be once again brought under the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime which should provide for a more consistent approach to large-scale onshore wind projects.
As a result, onshore wind projects that are 100MW or more will be brought under the NSIP regime. In addition, solar projects with a generating capacity of 100MW or more will also be brought under the NSIP regime (which is an increase from the current threshold of 50MW).
Regarding changes to the NPPF itself, the Government has made amendments designed to increase the deployment of renewables and sustainable drainage systems. Policy has also been amended to emphasise the importance of climate considerations in planning. This is partly done through an emphasis on 'vision-led' rather than 'predict and provide' approaches to transport planning. A new paragraph has also been introduced to make clear that climate change is an important consideration in decision-making as well as plan-making, and a wider ranger of climate impacts are now referenced through the NPPF.
The NPPF and planning practice guidance now provides more clarity on how the sequential test should be applied to areas in risk of flooding. This is designed to increase the use of sustainable drainage systems. As such, a sequential test is not needed where it can be shown that the development or access and egress route is not in an area of flood risk from any source.
Supporting local planning
The Government supports a plan-led system, though acknowledges that this is difficult when fewer than a third of paces have up-to-date plans. In response, the Government is:
Any local authority asked to go back and increase housing numbers will be provided with financial support.
For more information, see the:
