Major NPPF Reforms: What You Need to Know

On 16 December 2025, the government published its consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and other changes to the planning system. A draft version of the NPPF was also published alongside the consultation.

The consultation runs until 10 March 2026 and relates to England only.

Why the Changes?

The reforms build on the government’s commitment to tackling the housing crisis, modernising planning, and delivering sustainable growth. Following updates in December 2024—including mandatory housing targets and the introduction of the “grey belt”—the new draft NPPF seeks to create a clearer, more rules-based system that is easier to navigate and more directive in decision-making.

What Has Not Changed? – The Case for Non-Statutory National Policy

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 gave the Secretary of State power to introduce ‘National Development Management Policies’ on a statutory basis.  

The government has decided not to make these policies statutory at this stage but will keep this under review and will return to them if the proposed policies do not achieve the desired outcomes of supporting more effective decisions and reducing generic or alternate policies in development plans.  

The government considers that national planning policy already carries very considerable weight in the planning system, and that the core aims of the statutory National Development Management Policies can be secured within the current legal Framework by:

• Setting out clearer policies for planning and decision-making as proposed in this consultation;
• Making explicit that these decision-making policies should not be repeated in development plans; and
• Providing for these policies to bear on the system from day one, by requiring that any inconsistent local policies are immediately given very limited weight.

Changes to Structure and Content of the NPPF

The consultation seeks views on proposed changes to the structure of the Framework, to improve its clarity, usability and consistency. The proposed changes include:

• Changes to the structure of the NPPF to provide a clearer separation of policies for both plan-making and decision-making.
• Retaining topic-based chapters with some re-ordering.After the introduction, there is intended to be two procedural chapters – one on plan-making and one on decision-making.  With topic-based chapters to follow, beginning with sustainable development and climate change. Further re-ordering is proposed, with chapters grouped to first focus on steering development, then on creating sustainable places, and then conserving and enhancing the environment.
• Introducing new chapters on planning for energy and water, managing flood risk and costal change.
• Adding new annexes to incorporate certain elements from planning practice guidance, including the standard method for calculating local housing need, identifying green belt land and additional flood zone, flood risk and vulnerability tables. Standardised inputs into viability assessments may also be added subject to consultation.
• Incorporating many of the footnotes in the NPPF into the main text itself.
• Integrating policies on traveller sites into the NPPF, removing the need for the current separate document ‘Planning policy for traveller sites’.

Twelve Key Policy Changes

The government also proposes a number of reforms intended to make national policy clearer, more comprehensive and more effective at unlocking economic growth.  A summary of the twelve most significant reforms include:

1. Permanent presumption in favour of suitably located development
   The government wants to make clear what forms of development are acceptable in principle in different locations as part of creating a more rule-based approach to development. Development on urban land will be acceptable by default, taking forward parts of and building on the previous work on “brownfield passports”. The government also proposes a revised presumption in favour of sustainable development, in effect applying a permanent presumption in favour of suitably located development.
2. Building homes around stations
   The government wants to establish in principle support for a “default yes” for proposals around rail stations, including on Green Belt land. It is proposed a minimum density of 40 dwellings per hectare around all stations and 50 dwellings per hectares around “well-connected” stations.
3. Urban and suburban densification
   The government wants to get the most use out of land in urban and suburban areas, including through the redevelopment of corner and other low-density plots, upwards extensions and infill development including within residential curtilages.
4. Securing a diverse mix of homes
   The government wants to better support the needs of different groups through the planning system, including stronger support for rural social and affordable housing and setting clearer expectations for accessible housing to meet the needs of older disabled people. In addition, providing more flexibility on the unit mix of housing for market sales where local requirements for the mix of affordable homes have been met.
5. Supporting small and medium sites
   The government want to make it easier to bring forward small sites. The government also proposes the introduction of a “medium development” category to support a more streamlined and proportionate planning system, including exploring the potential benefits and drawbacks of enabling developers in some cases to discharge social and affordable housing requirements through cash contributions in lieu of direct delivery on site.
6. Streamlining local standards
   The government wants to promote certainty for applicants and speed up local plan production by limiting quantitative standards in development plans to only those specific issues where local variation is justified. They also want to avoid duplication with Building Regulations.
7. Boosting local and regional economies
   The government wants to encourage economic growth by giving substantial weight to benefits of supporting business growth and to particular areas and sectors including, AI Growth Zones, logistics, town centres and agricultural and rural development. The government also seeks views on whether the town centre sequential test should be removed to provide greater flexibility to respond to changing patterns of development.
8. Supporting critical and growth minerals
   The government wants to ensure adequate provision is made for the extraction of minerals. The government also wants to restrict the extraction of coal further to align with the mission of achieving clean power by 2030.
9. Vision-led approach to transport
   The government wants to further embed the changes made in the December 2024 version of the NPPF, which signalled the importance of moving away from a ‘predict and provide’ approach to transport planning.
10. Better addressing climate change
    The government wants to set out how decisions can take a pro-active approach to mitigation and adaptation in climate change.
11. Conserving and enhancing the natural environment
    The government wants to make a number of changes, including to reflect Local Nature Recovery Strategies, recognise landscape character and conserve and enhance existing natural features, including incorporating swift bricks. 
12. Positive approach to heritage assets
    The government also wants a clearer and more positive approach which can better support suitable heritage related development, replacing the current policies which are difficult to navigate.

Transitional Arrangements

The transitional arrangements in the draft Framework set out how the Framework would apply to plan-making and decision-making from the date of final publication.

For decision-making, it is proposed that the Framework would be a material consideration from the date of publication of the final version, meaning that the policies in the revised Framework will need to be taken into consideration when making decisions from that date.

The consultation document provides that the draft Framework will likely overlap with many development management policies and cover a lot of the same issues that are already addressed locally. Eventually it is expected that this overlap will fall away because plans which are prepared against the new Framework should not repeat, duplicate or modify policies covered by the Framework.

Where policies in the Framework and development plan are consistent, due weight should be given to development plan policies relative to their consistency with the Framework. Where they are inconsistent, development plan policies will be afforded very little weight, unless they have been examined and adopted against the new Framework. This would give clarity on how inconsistency should be managed in decision-making and ensure government priorities reflected in the Framework have effect as quickly as possible and are not hindered by policies that have not been produced in accordance with the Framework.

For plan-making, the Framework would underpin all new system plans, but old system plans would continue under the relevant previous versions of the framework. Spatial development strategies would be produced under the new NPPF, and neighbourhood plans not yet submitted for publication would also proceed under the new version. Development plans are not required to follow the revised NPPF until the final version is published.

Other Proposed Changes

Whilst we will not be going through these in this article, at the end of the consultation document, the government also sets out various proposed changes to the planning system at Annex A to C, namely:

• Data centres and onsite energy generation (Annex A)
• Viability: Standardised inputs in viability assessment (Annex B)
• Reforming Site Thresholds (Annex C)

The only thing we will touch on here, is that within Annex C, the government comments that it is aware that negotiation of section 106 agreements can create delays in the planning process and increase costs for developers and local planning authorities. As a result, the government is progressing work with the Planning Advisory Service to develop and publish a standard section 106 template, with a template for medium sites as an immediate priority. It is expected to become the default for applications in the future.

What Happens Next?

The consultation closes at 11:45pm on 10 March 2026.

For further details, the full consultation document and draft NPPF can be found on GOV.UK: National Planning Policy Framework: proposed reforms and other changes to the planning system - GOV.UK.

Conclusion

The proposed reforms mark a pivotal moment for planning in England, bringing about the most significant update to the NPPF since it was first published in 2012. If implemented, the changes will reshape how development is planned and delivered, introducing clearer, more rules based policies, accelerating housing delivery and supporting economic growth through strategic infrastructure and energy initiatives. With the consultation closing on 10 March 2025, we encourage anyone in the planning and development industry to engage and respond to the consultation.

If you would like advice on how these proposals could impact your development proposal, please contact our Planning Law team.