Prior to its election as the majority party in the House of Commons, the Labour Party made notable pledges to reform the inefficiencies caused by the planning process, including a pledge to immediately revise the National Policy Planning Framework (NPPF). The NPPF was updated most recently in December 2023 under the outgoing Conservative government. The current Labour government has labelled the December changes implemented by the Conservatives as ‘damaging’ to its objective of delivering affordable housing. 

With hopes to take “decisive and early” action to revise the NPPF, Matthew Pennycook (Labour's housing minister) discussed Labour's desire for change before Parliament recently, where he referred to the damaging effects of the Conservative revisions to the NPPF. In his view, the changes to the threshold for calculating housing need and delivery impeded the delivery of affordable housing. 

Sources suggest that the draft reforms of the NPPF will be disclosed to the public next Monday or Tuesday. It is also rumoured that the NPPF draft reforms will be publicised with a consultation document, a ministerial statement and more information on the elusive Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

Pennycook has explained that the reforms to the NPPF would encompass both “mandatory targets that bite on individual local planning authorities” and an “effective mechanism for cross-boundary strategic planning”. 

The changes to the NPPF will give an early glimpse into whether Labour's goal of achieving ‘a planning system geared towards meeting housing need in full’ is indeed an achievable goal.

For more information on the expected NPPF changes, please contact me.