The Government has recently published its long-awaited National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The purpose of the NPPF is to streamline planning bureaucracy, by condensing 44 planning policy statements and guidance notes (and thousands of pages) into a single 59-page document. It also:
1. Contains the economic, environmental and social planning policies for England;
2. Sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how they are expected to be applied; and
3. Must be taken into account in the preparation of local and neighbourhood plans.
The central theme of the NPPF is the “presumption in favour of sustainable development.”
The definition of “sustainable development” has been expanded so that it now includes reference to the social and environmental benefits of development. It includes five “guiding principles” of sustainable development, as set out in the UK Sustainable Development Strategy: living within the planet’s environmental limits; ensuring a strong, healthy and just society; achieving a sustainable economy; promoting good governance; and using sound science responsibly.
The NPPF lists 12 key planning principles that should be taken into account in both plan-making and decision-taking. Planning should:
1. Be genuinely plan-led;
2. Not simply be about scrutiny;
3. Be pro-actively driven and support sustainable economic development;
4. Always seek to secure high quality design and a good standard of amenity;
5. Take account of the different roles and character of different areas;
6. Support the transition to a low carbon future in a changing climate;
7. Contribute to conserving and enhancing the natural environment and reducing pollution;
8. Encourage the effective use of land by re-using brownfield land;
9. Promote mixed use developments;
10. Conserve heritage assets;
11. Actively manage patterns of growth; and
12. Take account of and support local strategies to improve health, social and cultural wellbeing.
Some key points
1. The NPPF encourages the effective use of land by re-using land that has been previously developed (i.e brownfield land), provided that it is not of high environmental value;
2. Planning policies should be positive, promote competitive town centre environments and set out policies for the management and growth of town centres. The NPPF retains the “sequential approach” to planning applications for main town centre uses. This requires most central town centre sites to be developed for shops, leisure and offices before out-of-town sites. However, an exemption to the sequential approach is included for small scale rural offices or other small scale rural development;
3. Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) should identify and annually update a supply of sites sufficient to provide five years’ worth of housing against their housing requirements, with an additional buffer of 5 per cent to ensure choice and competition in the market. Where there has been a history of persistent under-delivery of housing, LPAs should increase the buffer to 20 per cent to provide a realistic prospect of achieving the planned supply and to ensure choices and competition in the market for land. However, there is recognition that housing land supply can best be met through new settlements or extensions to existing towns and villages;
4. The NPPF continues to protect land designated as green belt. As with previous green belt policy, inappropriate development should not be approved except in special circumstances. New buildings within the green belt, subject to a limited number of exceptions, are inappropriate. It should be noted that renewable energy projects will often be inappropriate development, and in such cases, the developer will need to demonstrate very special circumstances if projects are to proceed; and
5. Transitional provisions have been introduced to give local authorities a 12 month reprieve (until 26 March 2013), provided that the local development plan does not conflict too much with the NPPF.
The future
It is absolutely clear that we have entered a new planning era, although it will be some time before we see its full effect. There will undoubtedly be a period of uncertainty while LPAs try to interpret and then apply the transitional provisions.
Through the NPPF, the Government is attempting to support employment and growth, whilst serving the interests of local communities and the environment by keeping the relevant checks and balances in place. Development powers have been transferred to local authorities, and local communities will be able to decide where new homes (and the infrastructure to support them) should be built.