By Tom Austin-Morgan

Expected changes to the NPPF address housing shortages, infrastructure, and sustainability by encouraging housing development, especially on brownfield sites, linking new homes with infrastructure, and prioritising climate-resilient designs.

The reforms are tied to the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, which aims to ensure local development plans align with national goals while giving communities more input. There will be a focus on digitising the planning process, making it faster and more transparent. 

A new infrastructure levy is planned to replace existing developer contributions to support infrastructure and affordable housing. The reforms will also emphasise public engagement and environmental protections, balancing development with sustainability.

The government plans to deliver 1.5 million homes over the next five years. If a council’s housing targets cannot be met, some existing ‘low-quality’ green belt land (land on the edge of existing settlements or roads, as well as old petrol stations and car parks) could be redesignated as ‘grey belt’ to achieve these numbers.

CIHT has called for planning system reform for some time to properly integrate land-use and transport planning. The Institute’s immediate and pressing observation is that this consultation fails to immediately address the critical inter-relationship of planning and transport.

“On this basis the proposed changes to the planning system as currently set out represent a missed opportunity to make a greater contribution to transport decarbonisation and the car-dependent nature of too many developments,” it stated.

Recommendations on the table

CIHT has outlined several key recommendations in its response to the proposed reforms to the NPPF, including prioritising sustainability in development over simply meeting housing targets, the integration of transport and planning, grey belt development, vision-led planning which moves away from the 'predict and provide' model, and collaboration and cross-boundary planning encouraging effective cooperation between local authorities and stakeholders to achieve consistent, sustainable development outcomes across regions.

Additionally, CIHT stresses that developments should be refused on transport grounds if they pose safety risks or fail to demonstrate accessibility by sustainable modes like walking, cycling, and public transport. They argue that car-dependent developments undermine local transport plans and negatively impact highway capacity and safety.

Regarding grey belt development, CIHT expresses concerns that the current definition fails to incorporate sustainability effectively. They suggest revising the definition to include references to sustainable transport and land use, ensuring grey belt developments align with sustainability goals.

CIHT is offering its ongoing support to the government in the planning reform process. They say it is important that the opportunity presented by this update to the NPPF is fully utilised to ensure the planning system functions to support sustainable development that promotes economic growth, public value and greener development.

The current government is yet to respond, although confirmed revisions to the NPPF are expected before the end of the year.

Newsletter image: Houses of Parliament in London; credit: Shutterstock.