What’s Happened?
The eagerly awaited consultation on the Government’s proposed National Development Management Policies (“NDMPs”) is due to be released before the end of 2025. A consultation on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (“NPPF”) is also going to be released at the same time. Steve Reed (the Housing Secretary) confirmed this when speaking at the Housing, Communities and Local Government (“HCLG”) committee on 11th November.
Background to NDMPs
The idea of establishing development management policies on a national scale has been coming through for some years. They were included as an idea in the Planning for the Future White Paper in 2020, and then worked into the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act (LURA) in 2023.
However, it has taken until now for meaningful progress on NDMPs to come to fruition.
Why does the Government want NDMPs?
They have the potential to speed up Local Plan making and to provide consistent decision making on planning applications across the country.
To fully realise these benefits, the LURA opened the door for NDMPs to be statutory in decision making, so if there would be a conflict between the adopted Local Plan policies and the NDMPs then the conflict must be resolved in favour of NDMPs (so, effectively, local planning policies becoming somewhat obsolete if they conflict with NDMPs).
The idea of NDMPs being statutory has caused debate in the development industry, with some being strongly in favour and some being strongly against arguing that NDMPs should be ‘guidance’ like the current NPPF is.
Those opposing statutory NDMPs are concerned that it would take away the Local Planning Authority’s power at a local level to make decisions that impact their local communities, and that it could impact how the decision-maker determines the correct planning balance for proposals.
However, Housing Minister Steve Reed has now ended that speculation by confirming, at the HCLG committee on 11 November, that NDMPs will be non-statutory.
What do we think?
Our view is that there was much to be gained for having statutory NDMPs for both local plans and decision making and non-statutory NDMPs will inevitably cause debate at Planning Committees and Appeals. Nevertheless, the risk of unintended consequences and onerous requirements (e.g. risk of judicial review and the need for strategic environmental impact assessment) may have caused more uncertainty in the long run.
It’s crucial that Local Plans do not repeat the NPPF. This is already a general principle in plan making, though we can point to many examples of repetition in Local Plans. We hope that the government’s chosen approach will emphasise this principle and make it clear that new Local Plans should, as often as possible, rely on the NDMPs. This will at least help shorten new Local Plans and provide more consistent application of policy across the country over time.
Stella Heeley
Associate Planner – DLP Planning
BSc (Hons) MSc MRTPI
07825 635274
stella.heeley@dlpconsultants.co.uk
dlpconsultants.co.uk
linkedin.com/dlp-planningltd
What might non-statutory NDMPs say?
Steve Reed has previously indicated that he wants to “go further” with NDMPs than former Housing Secretary Angela Rayner intended.
To realise the benefits, our view is that NDMPs will need to go further than the current NPPF by becoming more specific and granular on certain policy matters.
Indications in various media sources reference the following:
- A national validation list;
- “Medium scale” proposals having its own definition (10 – 50 dwellings), rather than proposed developments only being considered as minor (less than 10 dwellings) or major (10 or more dwellings);
- A policy to enable Local Planning Authorities to act if statutory consultees do not respond;
- Optional technical standards; and
- A ‘default yes’ approach to proposed developments that meet design codes, that are within an 800 metre radius of a transport hub (e.g. train stations), and that meet the criteria stipulated in brownfield passports (the full details of which are still awaited from the Government)
In addition to NDMPs, we are eagerly awaiting updated viability guidance in relation to the Golden Rules for development that takes place on, or is released from, the Green Belt (as promised earlier this year). We hope that the guidance will consider circumstances in which site-specific viability assessment may be considered to help deliver the Government’s objective of boosting housing supply across the country.
In addition, we also await the implementation of the new Local Plan making system which we also understand will be before the end of this year.
We will be comprehensively reviewing the NDMP consultation and other announcements upon their release.
