Government launches consultation on latest revisions to National Planning Policy Framework

In an oral statement in the House of Commons, the Minister of Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook, said: “This wholly restructured framework maintains and builds on the initial revisions we made in December last year. It includes a range of new measures to support key economic sectors and incorporates new clear and rules-based national policies for the making of both plans and decisions.”

The minister added that, “as a result of the not insignificant risk and uncertainty that such an approach entailed”, the Government had taken the decision not to proceed with statutory national development management policies at this stage.

“Instead, we have chosen to realise their benefits swiftly through agile national policy changes, while leaving open the possibility of a future transition to statutory NDMPs should it be required,” Pennycook said.

“The new decision-making policies in the framework published today [16 December] are therefore designed to make development management more certain, consistent and streamlined; to standardise policies that apply across the whole of England; and to reduce duplication and avoid unjustified local deviation from national policy in local plans.”

The Minister said the proposed changes include:

• a permanent presumption in favour of sustainable development, building on the proposals outlined in the Government’s brownfield passport working paper to make development of suitable land in urban areas acceptable by default;
• a default yes for suitable proposals for development of land around rail stations within existing settlements and around well-connected stations outside settlements, including on green belt land; and
• a targeted series of changes to drive urban and suburban densification, including through the redevelopment of corner and other low-density plots, upward extensions, infill development and residential curtilages.

Pennycook added that there would be stronger support for rural social and affordable housing, clearer expectations would be set for accessible housing to meet the needs of older and disabled people, and more flexibility would be provided on the unit mix of housing for market sale where local requirements for social and affordable homes have been met.

The minister claimed that taken together, the changes “represent the most significant reform to national planning policy since the original NPPF was introduced more than a decade ago”.

The consultation closes on 10 March 2026.

The MHCLG has also announced a series of policy and regulatory easements to help small and medium-sized house builders.

Pennycook said that following publication in May of a working paper on a new medium threshold for development of sites up to 1 hectare with between 10 and 49 homes, the Government had decided to go further. “While the 10 to 49 unit threshold will apply, we propose to increase the size of sites covered by the new medium category to up to 2.5 hectares, thereby increasing the number of SME house builders being supported.”

To support development activity on this new category of site, the Government is proposing limiting information requirements “to what is necessary and proportionate”.

The Government will set a clear expectation that local planning authorities allocate 10% of their housing requirement to sites between 1 hectare and 2.5 hectares, in addition to the existing requirement to do so for sites under 1 hectare, to better support different scales of development.

Pennycook said: “Without compromising building and residents’ safety rules, we are using the consultation to ask the technical questions necessary to determine whether to exempt this new medium category of development from the building safety levy, and we are exploring further the potential benefits and drawbacks of enabling developers of medium sites to discharge social and affordable housing requirements through cash contributions in lieu of direct delivery.”

The Minister also confirmed that the Government will exempt smaller developments of up to 0.2 hectares from biodiversity net gain and introduce “a suite of other, simplified requirements” to improve the implementation of BNG on small and medium sites that are not exempted.

DEFRA will "rapidly" consult on an additional targeted exemption for brownfield residential development, testing the definition of land to which it should apply and a range of site sizes up to 2.5 hectares.

Responding to the announcements, Cllr Tom Hunt, Chair of the Local Government Association's Inclusive Growth Committee, said: “The proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework are some of the most significant we’ve seen, so it is crucial that the views of councils - who approve nine in ten planning applications and are keen to deliver developments for their areas - are fully taken into account through this consultation process.

“While the Government’s commitment to boost development and housebuilding is admirable, changes to the planning system alone will not suffice. Councils need sufficient powers and funding to buy land, bring forward and connect with much-needed infrastructure, and speed up build-out of sites with planning permission. Government must also take steps to address the growing skills and workforce challenges in the construction sector."

He added: “Planning committees are the democratic backbone of the planning system, with councils being accountable to their communities about what should be built where. This is a central tenet that must remain under a reformed planning system.

“We will now work with our members to fully consider the proposed changes and what they mean for local government and the communities they serve.”

Ben Standing, Partner in planning at law firm Browne Jacobson, said: “The latest consultation on an amended NPPF – which comes just a year after publishing a revised version – brings forward significant changes to how planning decisions are made by local and national government.

“In particular, there is a targeted push to unlock small and medium-sized plots of land for development by creating a new ‘medium’ category for sites, exemptions for smaller sites from biodiversity net gain regulations and new benchmark land values.

“These are often regarded as the most difficult sites to bring forward for development due to land costs and local opposition. While the government wants to introduce a permanent presumption in favour of suitable development, it must be mindful of how councils and developers engage communities early on so that valid concerns are mitigated ahead of construction work. This can ensure local people feel they are benefitting, not suffering, from national development targets."

Standing added: "More broadly, there is a danger that constant planning policy flip-flopping actually holds back development rather than accelerates it. In our experience, regular significant changes to the system creates uncertainty for developers on how to cost these in, while local authority planners require sufficient guidance so they can make good decisions.

“Planning policy will only ever be one piece of the jigsaw in the government’s quest to build more homes. It must address the viability problem by tackling the wider economic and skills challenges that make construction so expensive.”