Ministers have opened a 12‑week consultation on a clearer, rules‑based National Planning Policy Framework. In a letter to planning and housebuilding stakeholders on 16 December 2025, Housing Secretary Steve Reed set out proposals to separate plan‑making and decision‑making policies, with new national decision policies intended to take precedence over conflicting local plan policies from day one once adopted. The consultation closes on 10 March, and officials will run sector engagement throughout the window.
Guidance for the new plan‑making system confirms the timetable: a revised NPPF will be issued for consultation this year and, after analysis of responses, an update is anticipated in summer 2026. Local plans being prepared under the new system may have regard to the consultation draft once it is published.
The draft reforms would embed a permanent presumption in favour of development where suitably located, building on earlier ‘brownfield passports’. Around rail and tram stations, suitable schemes would receive an in‑principle default ‘yes’, including on Green Belt at well‑connected stations outside existing settlements, with minimum densities of 40 dwellings per hectare around stations and 50 at well‑connected hubs.
Beyond station areas, the package points to higher densities in urban and suburban locations through redevelopment of corner and other low‑density plots, upward extensions and infill within residential curtilages. Authorities would be expected to set minimum densities in well‑connected locations and town centres, and plan for overall higher densities within settlements.
On housing mix, the consultation proposes stronger support for rural social and affordable homes and clearer expectations for accessible housing to meet the needs of older and disabled residents. A new ‘medium development’ category would be introduced with targeted easements to streamline decisions, alongside testing whether cash contributions could in some cases substitute for on‑site affordable delivery where local requirements have already been met.
To increase certainty and speed, ministers propose limiting quantitative local standards to those issues where local variation is justified and curbing duplication with Building Regulations. The stated intention is to shorten plan production and reduce case‑by‑case disputes over overlapping standards.
Policy would be more explicitly pro‑growth. Decision makers would give substantial weight to business expansion and named sectors including AI growth zones, logistics, town centres and rural development. Views are sought on removing the town centre sequential test. The consultation also covers provision for critical and growth minerals, further restrictions on coal extraction, and a shift to vision‑led transport planning.
Revisions on climate and nature include a clearer approach to mitigation and adaptation and updates to reflect Local Nature Recovery Strategies, recognition of landscape character and guidance on sites of local importance. The letter confirms an exemption from biodiversity net gain for developments up to 0.2 hectares and a rapid follow‑on consultation testing a targeted brownfield exemption with site sizes up to 2.5 hectares, plus simplified requirements for small and medium sites that stay within scope.
National planning policy would remain non‑statutory for now rather than being designated as statutory decision policies under the Levelling‑up and Regeneration Act 2023. Ministers argue that the system’s current operation affords policy significant weight without disruption; they will keep the position under review if the reforms do not deliver as intended.
Local plan making continues in parallel under the reformed system. From early 2026 a 30‑month process with three gateways and digital requirements comes into effect, with a transition period during which legacy and new systems run side by side. The last date to submit plans under the existing regulations will be 31 December 2026.
The letter also clarifies how existing planning obligations should be handled. Section 106 agreements may be renegotiated where justified to maintain viability, but attempts to revisit fundamentals via Section 73 should be scrutinised and any harm from reduced affordable housing weighed carefully. Government will implement Section 73B, legislated for in 2023, as the principal route for general post‑permission changes; it is not intended to facilitate reductions in agreed obligations and Section 73B(5) will constrain such attempts.
Two delivery measures sit alongside the NPPF changes. A pattern‑book programme will invite expressions of interest from ambitious councils to standardise high‑quality designs, supporting use of artificial intelligence and modern methods of construction. An extra £5 million expands the Small Sites Aggregator to Bristol, Sheffield and Lewisham, expected to help SME builders bring up to 60 brownfield plots into social rent delivery.
Several elements depend on the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill 2025. The letter previews a national scheme of delegation for planning committees, local fee‑setting subject to a national default, stronger and clearer powers for development corporations, a new strategic planning tier via Spatial Development Strategies, faster compulsory purchase with lower administrative costs, and changes to the NSIP pre‑application process taking effect in late spring.
For planning authorities, the practical takeaway is advance preparation: if adopted as proposed, national decision policies would apply from the day the new NPPF is published, altering the balance where local plans contain conflicting policies. Teams should consider how emerging minimum densities, station‑area policies and the approach to local standards will interact with current plan policies and design codes ahead of formal changes.
For developers and registered providers, the pipeline implications include assessing opportunities near stations, redevelopment of low‑density urban plots and the proposed treatment of ‘medium developments’. Viability strategies should reflect the clarified approach to Section 106 adjustments and the incoming Section 73B route. Small builders in Bristol, Sheffield and Lewisham may wish to track the Aggregator expansion and pattern‑book work as potential routes to quicker starts.
For communities and environmental organisations, scrutiny is likely to focus on the balance between delivery and safeguards. While proposals emphasise climate adaptation, design quality and protection of local nature sites, the small‑site biodiversity net gain exemptions and potential removal of the sequential test will draw attention. Government invites responses before decisions expected from summer 2026.