Angela Rayner, the new Secretary of State for the ‘sensibly’ named Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (they dropped the ‘Levelling Up’ tag), has recently published a new, revised draft of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

The NPPF sets out Government policy nationally on planning issues, such as housing, Green Belt, employment land, heritage, flood risk and sustainability. It is usually followed by LPAs with some local exceptions where departures to suit local circumstances can be justified (e.g. acute shortage of affordable housing and lower affordable housing thresholds).

The NPPF under the Conservatives
The NPPF was last amended by the previous Conservative Government in December 2023; not completely for the better. Much of the revisions last time around clearly pandered to a rather NIMBY voting base that the Conservatives were desperately trying to safeguard. The removal of mandatory housing targets was one such change that neither made LPAs accountable for poor housing delivery performance nor encouraged housebuilders to up their game.

Big majority, big ambition
Labour has swept into power on a wave of despondency and loss of patience with the Conservatives and an agenda built on one word: Change.

Their plan to build new infrastructure, roads and railways and deliver 1.5m new homes in the next five years signals a desire to make use of current goodwill and optimism and impact local communities. That and a massive, landslide 290-seat majority, which barring further wars and pandemics and total economic collapse gives the Labour Government effectively a whole 10 years at least in power. Therefore, they can afford to take a strategic and long term view with their planning policies. Some proposals for reform might begin to bite in a matter of months – some such as their proposal for ‘new towns’ will take much longer and run into the next Parliament before any impact is discernible.