The National Policy Planning Framework
The National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF) is perhaps England’s most vital land-use planning policy. The NPPF was created in 2012 by the coalition government, streamlining various pre-existing planning policies in England into a single document.
Last week, the Labour government published the new NPPF, alongside a press statement. The revised NPPF contains a number of notable new features and rules with wide-reaching impacts on local government and climate in England.
Not too long ago we issued an article detailing the environmental ins and outs of the Labour manifesto and how they might impact British biodiversity and the landscaping sector, which you can read here. These reforms are fundamentally linked to the government’s commitment to building 1.5 million new homes by the end of this parliament.
Consequently, it is important for us to examine the new NPPF through a climate-oriented lens and make conclusions about it from a balanced yet markedly environmental perspective.
We Read the New NPPF so You Don’t Have to
Everything in the 82-page document (linked here) is relevant to the English environment in some way, be that directly or indirectly, when analysing it through a climate-based lens. This article will focus on those sections of the new framework which explicitly discuss climate, environment, and biodiversity. Henceforth, this article will provide a guide through those sections of the new NPPF which are explicitly linked to a commitment to improving climate resilience, biodiversity, and sustainability.
Achieving Well-Designed Places
‘Achieving well-designed places’ is chapter 12 of the document, opening with the assertion that ‘the creation of high quality, beautiful and sustainable buildings and places is fundamental to what the planning and development process should achieve’. This is notable because despite Rayner’s controversial statements about beautiful buildings, ‘beautiful’ has only been removed from the chapter title, continuing to play a distinctive role in setting out the expectations of housing development. This can be seen when comparing the new document with the previous document, archived in December 2023.
Section 135(b) makes explicit links to the role of landscape architecture in community developments – ‘appropriate and effective landscaping’.
Importantly, paragraph 136 retains the acknowledgement of the contribution of trees to development, noting that they ‘make an important contribution to the character and quality of urban environments’ and acknowledging their important role in mitigating climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2). It requires that ‘new streets are tree-lined’ and that steps are taken to include trees in other aspects of developments such as parks and orchards.
While much of this remains the same as the 2023 document, it is important to note that these commitments to aboriculture and landscaping in local developments reflect positively on the new NPPF’s attitude to climate resilience and sustainability.
Protecting Green Belt Land
Chapter 13 of the framework focuses on the Green Belt, a topic of much discussion surrounding Labour’s planning reforms, particularly in relation to ‘grey belt’ land.
Section 147(a) sets out that brownfield sites and ‘underutilised land’ should be prioritised to protect Green Belt land. Further, paragraph 148 establishes the order of priority when it comes to developing in the Green Belt. Previously developed land should be prioritised first, ‘then consider grey belt which is not previously developed’, before resorting to other Green Belt locations. This policy is reaffirmed in paragraph 155.
It should be noted that the concept of ‘grey belt’ used in this section of the NPPF is not found anywhere in the 2023 framework, marking a step towards achieving Labour’s housing commitment by freeing up underutilised rural land for development. While this land may not be used for any agricultural or recreational purposes, this aspect of the framework may fail to recognise alternative, community-based uses for underutilised rural land, as well as the potentially biodiverse nature of it.
Paragraphs 156-157 set out Labour’s new ‘Golden Rules‘ for planning. They state that development in the Green Belt should meet the following contributions; ‘affordable housing‘, ‘necessary improvements to local or national infrastructure‘, and ‘the provision of new, or improvements to existing, green spaces that are accessible to the public‘. 156(c) also specifies that these green spaces should be accessible by foot for residents of new housing developments, reducing car-usage and incorporating pedestrian-centric language into the new NPPF not present in the previous version of the framework.
Paragraph 159 builds on these contributions to green spaces, clarifying that they should support nature recovery and meet local standards for the provision of green space. A summary of the Golden Rules can be found on this government summary of the revised NPPF.
Interestingly, paragraph 160, the final point in this chapter, states that some renewable energy projects in the Green Belt may constitute inappropriate development, but that ‘wider environmental benefits associated with increased production of energy from renewable sources’ may be included as ‘very special circumstances’, allowing said energy projects to go ahead. This fits in with the government’s aim of reforming British energy production, exemplified by Energy Secretary Ed Miliband’s ‘Great British Energy’.
Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change, Flooding, and Coastal Change
This chapter is perhaps the most explicit when it comes to commitments to mitigating climate change and promoting sustainability.
Paragraph 161 begins by stating that ‘the planning system should support the transition to net zero by 2050’. It also states that the framework should help to reduce carbon emissions, and protect and climate-related vulnerabilities like coastal erosion and flooding. The framework should also ‘support renewable and low carbon energy and associated infrastructure’.
Such an explicit commitment to net zero is not found in the December 2023 version of the NPPF.
The framework asserts the development projects must proactively account for the resilience of communities and infrastructure to climate change impacts (paragraph 163), and that the ‘need to mitigate and adapt to climate change’ be central in the consideration of planning applications. This builds on existing UK case law which has seen courts recognise the importance and legitimacy of climate change considerations in planning applications.
Importantly, paragraph 164(b) states that new developments should reduce greenhouse gas emissions via ‘location, orientation, and design’, meanwhile paragraph 165 details the ways in which plans should help to increase ‘the use and supply of renewable and low carbon energy’. These sections are fundamentally included to cement systems of climate resilience into planning for new developments, increasing the longevity and sustainability of these projects.
With regards to Local Planning Authorities (LPAs), paragraph 163(b) of the 2023 NPPF states that LPAs should approve applications for renewable and low carbon developments ‘if its impacts are (or can be made) acceptable’. In contrast, paragraph 168(a) of the new NPPF states that LPAs should ‘give significant weight to the benefits associated with renewable and low carbon energy and the people’s contribution to a net zero future’.
The new framework also builds on this part of the 2023 version, stating that this goes for ‘all forms’ of renewable energy and ‘their associated infrastructure’, phrases not found in the 2023 version. As part of this, footnote 57 of the 2023 NPPF which stated that wind energy development may also be permitted via Local Development Order (LDO), Neighbourhood Development Order (NDO), or Community Right to Build Order (CRBO), has been completely removed in the new NPPF.
With regards to flood risk, paragraph 172 states that development plans must apply an environmental ‘risk-based approach to the location of development’ which takes into account ‘the current and future impacts of climate change’. Paragraphs 173-177 go into detail regarding this sequential risk-based approach to flood risk which the 2023 NPPF did not, with its application to areas known or predicted to be affected by flooding, unless the development possesses ‘potentially vulnerable elements’ like escape routes or land raising which sit outside of an area at risk of flooding.
This chapter of the new NPPF builds upon the old, incorporating a greater emphasis on climate resilience, sustainability, and risk assessment than the 2023 framework.
Conserving and Enhancing the Natural Environment
Chapter 15 of the new NPPF focuses on maintaining biodiverse elements of the existing natural environment, as well as positively contributing to them.
Section 187 explains how planning policies should enhance the natural environment, these being; protecting and enhancing sites of biodiversity or geological value, recognising the ‘intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside, and the wider benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services’, maintaining the character of the coastline and improving public access to it, ‘minimising impacts on and providing net gains for biodiversity’, preventing soil, air, water, and noise pollution, and resolving and mitigating derelict, unstable, or contaminated land where appropriate.
As just listed, paragraph 187(d) touches on the prevention of damage to and enhancement of net gains to biodiversity. This is an incredibly important point, and the previous NPPF did not cover this in as much detail as the 2024 framework does. The new NPPF builds on the 2023 document’s point of establishing ‘coherent ecological networks’ which are resilient to current and future pressures, by adding the incorporation of ‘features which support priority or threatened species such as swifts, bats, and hedgehogs’. Further, paragraph 188 highlights the importance of ‘maintaining and enhancing networks of habitats and green infrastructure’ extending across local authority boundaries.
Paragraph 189 emphasises the importance of National Landscapes and National Parks and their role in the conservation and enhancement of wildlife and cultural heritage, and states that the extent of development within these areas ought to be limited, as was the case with paragraph 182 of the 2023 NPPF.
Paragraph 193 is central in the NPPF in determining how LPAs should interact with biodiversity concerns. For example, 193(a) states that LPAs should refuse planning permission if there is thought to be significant harm to biodiversity resulting from a development, similarly 193(c) states that developments which result in the loss or deterioration of irreplaceable habitats should be refused, and 193(d) emphasises that developments whose ‘primary objective is to conserve or enhance biodiversity’ should be supported, and that opportunities to enhance biodiversity should be incorporated into development plans.
This latter point aligns with Labour’s manifesto commitment of creating homes which are ‘high-quality’ and ‘sustainable’ as part of developments which have these characteristics, as well as climate resilience and nature recovery, built into them as part of their design. This can be found on page 39 of the 2024 Labour Party manifesto.
The latter part of chapter 15, subtitled as ‘Ground conditions and pollution’, which includes paragraphs 196 – 201 has seen no changes from their 2023 counterparts, paragraphs 189 – 194.
Conclusion
Primarily, the new NPPF reflects the policy objectives of the new Labour government, in contrast to the 2023 NPPF revised during the tenure of Rishi Sunak’s Conservative government.
Much of the new NPPF is centred on allowing the government to pursue and achieve its promise of 1.5 million homes by the end of this parliament. While a lot of the NPPF’s policies which explicitly concern the environment and biodiversity have been retained from the 2023 framework, the revised NPPF levies a greater emphasis on themes of climate resilience and the incorporation of sustainability into new developments, in line with the policy commitments of Labour’s 2024 manifesto.
The new NPPF sets out a path towards sustainable development projects and a pragmatic approach to Green Belt development, utilising underutilised ‘grey belt’ land whilst abiding by a new model of ‘Golden Rules’.
Furthermore, the 2024 framework makes an explicit commitment to net zero by 2050 and the additions of the revised version reflect this.
It levies new responsibilities and considerations upon LDAs when assessing planning applications which reflect recent developments in British case law regarding the legitimacy of climate change concerns in development planning processes.
The new NPPF also goes into greater detail with regards to flood risk assessment in light of the threats posed by climate change.
Overall, the revised NPPF is a huge and much-needed step forward in British planning regulation, one which places increasingly important factors like climate resilience, sustainability, and biodiversity at the forefront.