The Government has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the NPPF in order to achieve sustainable growth in the planning system and to deliver the governments commitments to achieve economic growth and deliver 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament. The consultation also seeks views on wider policy proposals in relation to increasing planning fees (including householder applications), changes to the local plan intervention criteria and appropriate thresholds for certain Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects. The Government expects universal coverage of local plans and is expecting local planning authorities to proceed with making ambitious local plans as quickly as possible.
The consultation documents include the draft text for the framework. The proposed changes include;
- Making a standard method for assessing housing needs mandatory;
- Reversing other changes to the NPPF made in December 2023 which were considered detrimental to housing supply;
- Implement a new standard method and calculation to ensure local plans are ambitious enough to support the Government’s manifesto commitment of 1.5 million new homes;
- Broaden the existing definition of brownfield land, set a strengthened expectation that applications on brownfield land will be approved and that plans should promote an uplift in density in urban areas;
- Identify lower quality grey belt land within the Green Belt to meet development needs;
- Improve the operation of ‘the presumption’ in favour of sustainable development by clarifying the circumstances in which it applies and making clear its application cannot justify poor quality development;
- Deliver affordable, well designed homes, with new “golden rules” for land released in the Green Belt;
- Wider changes to prioritise the types of affordable homes communities need (including more Social Rent), supporting a more diverse housebuilding sector;
- Support economic growth in key sectors, aligned with the Government’s industrial strategy and future local growth plans, including laboratories, gigafactories, datacentres, digital economies and freight and logistics;
- Deliver community needs to support society and the creation of healthy places;
- Support clean energy and the environment, including through support for onshore wind and renewables.
The full consultation document can be read at Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and runs to the 24th September 2024. The Government will provide a response to the consultation and publish revisions to the NPPF before the end of the year.
If you have any queries with the consultation then please do not hesitate to contact us.
