Next changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) are likely to be announced over the coming week.
It is expected that they will be published before Parliament goes into recess for Christmas on Thursday December 18 – mirroring previous updates released in late December 2022 and 2023.
Housing Secretary Steve Reed suggested as much in an appearance before the Housing, Communities and Local Government Select Committee last month.
The revised NPPF will be accompanied by National Development Management Policies (NDMPs), which will initially be introduced on a non-statutory basis.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook said that statutory NDMPs would have caused ‘disruption and delay’ to the planning system when he spoke at the Land, Planning and Development Federation (LPDF) conference in late November.
The revised NPPF will set out the Government’s new approach to local plan making, spatial development strategies and national policies.
We previously highlighted that the new National Development Management Policies (NDMPs) are set to be non-statutory.
They were legislated for in the 2023 Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (LURA) to set out policy on those issues that appear regularly in planning decisions.
Crucially, under the legislation, they would carry greater weight where there is a conflict with the Local Plan in development management decisions.
After several delays to consultation, Housing Secretary Steve Reed said that the government will bring forward the proposed range of NDMPs on a ‘non-statutory’ basis alongside the updated NPPF.
Our Planning Director Adam Bennett said at the time that this will result in a toothless set of policies which will fail to carry through at all on the provisions set out within the LURA:
“They will still be a ‘material consideration’ but being non-statutory they are ‘just guidance’ and will therefore struggle to be given any meaningful weight in decision making where Local Plans will continue to take precedence. Ultimately, this is very disappointing watering down again from the Government.”
We will keep track of announcements and provide updates when they are published.
