The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has responded to government’s consultation on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
In its response to the consultation by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the OEP welcomes proposed changes designed to achieve coherence with wider policies relating to the environment and nature’s recovery, and makes a number of recommendations for further improvements.
Natalie Prosser, OEP Chief Executive, said: “The NPPF must fit coherently with wider national environmental targets, objectives, plans and strategies if government is to achieve its aim of a planning system that delivers ‘win-wins’ for nature and economic growth.
“We welcome proposals in this consultation that seek to ensure coherence, and we make some suggestions that we think would further improve the proposals in a number of areas.
“We hope our response is helpful as government seeks to finalise its revisions of this important planning framework.”
Environmental targets and objectives
We welcome the proposed policy change that would require planning authorities to consider opportunities to contribute to compliance with national environmental targets and objectives when drawing up their development plans.
However, we think that the NPPF should provide further clarity regarding the national environmental targets and objectives that are relevant to local authorities and the role government intends for them to play in their delivery.
Local Nature Recovery Strategies
We welcome proposals that would provide further clarity as to how development plans and proposals should consider Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS).
Our response states how we consider further clarity should be provided and suggests additional policies where we consider LNRS should be referenced to embed better coherence throughout the planning process.
Land Use Framework
There is an opportunity for the NPPF to clarify how government’s awaited national Land Use Framework (‘LUF’) should inform local-level spatial planning to enable the more strategic and effective use of land.
However, the consultation proposals contain no mention of how the LUF should feed into the development planning process. Our response says that once the LUF has been published, further additions should be incorporated into the NPPF, to ensure that the analysis and principles set out within it inform decision-making about land use at a local scale in a consistent, coordinated and meaningful way.
Environmental Delivery Plans
Government has introduced the Environment Delivery Plans (EDP) framework as a new approach to offsetting impacts on protected sites and protected species, through long-term and strategic scale actions.
We think the NPPF should be revised to require more meaningful join-up between local development plans and EDPs with respect to efforts to safeguard and enhance protected sites and protected species.
We also consider that the NPPF should ensure that land required by EDPs to offset the impacts of development is given appropriate protection as part of the planning system.
LURA Protected Landscapes duty
We are concerned that the draft revised NPPF does not properly reflect the Protected Landscapes duty, as strengthened by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. The duty now requires local planning authorities to “seek to further” Protected Landscape purposes, not merely to “have regard” to them, when exercising their functions.
The government’s associated guidance states that authorities should, as far as is reasonably practical, seek to “avoid harm and contribute to” Protected Landscape purposes. However, the proposed draft policy would only require that development proposals are designed to “avoid harm”.
We think the NPPF should be updated to align with the amended duty and better reflect government’s associated guidance.
Environmental Principles Policy Statement assessment
Our response notes that no Environmental Principles Policy Statement (EPPS) assessment has been published with respect to the proposed reforms, nor does the consultation invite the views of stakeholders in relation to potential implications for environmental principles.
This is a missed opportunity to provide transparency around the application of EPPS, which can be a powerful tool to help all of government meet its ambitions to protect and improve the environment by ensuring coherence across different policies.
Our full response can be downloaded via the blue button to the right of this page.
