Six ways planning policy needs to change

Planning policy isn’t acting in the public interest. Here’s six changes that can make planning policy better.
The Government consulted on a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) from December 2025. It’s the biggest change since the NPPF was first introduced in over a decade ago.

We think the draft NPPF needs changes if it is to support plan-making and decision-taking in the public interest.

The current wording fails to be sufficiently consistent with legal duties and designations. And it only prioritises the Government’s economic policies and strategies, downplaying social and environmental policies which together make up the three pillars of sustainable development.

So here’s the six changes we want to see. You can read more about them in our short paper here.

1. Sustainable development needs to be fully embedded in NPPF policies – the draft NPPF references economic strategies and plans but not social or environment equivalents undermining the statutory duty to deliver sustainable development
2. The boosted “presumption in favour of sustainable development” needs changes to ensure it delivers quality development – not least removing the loophole where development should be presumed to go ahead outside settlements where the local planning authorities fails either the housing land supply test (showing five years’ worth of land to meet the higher housing targets introduced in 2024) or the housing delivery test (which looks at whether housing targets have been met by private and other developers)
3. The Land Use Framework’s principles and data should be essential elements in the development of spatial development strategies and local plans
4. The relative weighting of policies in the NPPF should reflect the intent of Parliament in statutory protections and duties for heritage and protected landscapes rather than attempting to subvert these intentions, across many different policies
5. The NPPF should encourage rather than constrain local ambition to meet climate change targets (for example being able to require higher standards in energy efficiency), and biodiversity targets, air quality and pollution prevention
6. Co-production and co-design approaches should be required in the creation of local plans and development of significant sites, to build consensus and allow communities a voice

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