Lucy Bird

Whist here have been some shifts from the consultation version from the start of the year, many of the newly formed policies remain, and their relevance for agents, landowners, farmers, other business owners and developers who live or operate within rural areas remains key.

The new framework represents a more rules-based approach, providing greater certainty over what forms of development should and shouldn’t be permitted with a clear split of distinctive plan making policies and national decision-making policies. As with other versions, the document covers all matters of planning such as heritage, national landscapes, flood risk and of course rural development.

There is also the heavily debated matter of grey and green belt, which can be left for another time; here we focus on how the new NPPF supports rural development and growth. From the outset it is very encouraging to see that the new policy aims to boost rural economies by allocating ‘substantial’ weight to agricultural growth and business diversification and includes explicit recognition of the importance of agricultural modernisation.

There is now a clear recognition of market supply and demand and the need to take into account anticipated catchment areas and the changing needs of different sectors in meeting the needs of businesses, as a way of justifying the location of development in support of new policy S5.  For rural areas, the sustainable growth of business in rural areas is strongly supported through the reuse of existing buildings as well as ‘well‑designed new development’.

Development is also better supported for the diversification of agricultural business with farm viability being acknowledged. Specifically, the new NPPF supports measures to retain and expand accessible local shops and services, which is vital for village communities to remain sustainable and most crucially, there is recognition that development proposals may need to be located outside settlement boundaries and in locations that are not well served by public transport in order to meet rural business needs.

In terms of housing however, the same consideration has not been afforded to rural areas.

Probably the most important goal and reasoning of the new NPPF is to accelerate and unlock the delivery of desperately needed new homes across England with most people well versed to the Government’s target of 1.5 million homes (for which time is truly ticking). Whilst a policy document on its own will not address the acute and entrenched housing crisis, it provides a supportive foundation to help to unlock the delivery of homes.  To a point however, the NPPF has an urban bias failing to address unique rural living realities especially in meeting housing need and demand.

One of the most important changes in the NPPF is the shift of the familiar ‘tilted balance’ with a more permanent, location-based presumption in favour of sustainable development. In doing this, the revised NPPF prioritises development that is ‘suitably located,’ introducing policies S4 (within settlements) and S5 (outside settlements). Some would argue that this change shifts the starting point from initial resistance to development to a clearer route to approval for edge-of-settlement developments. 

 For developers, land owners and land managers, this should result in greater consistency and certainty when speculating on development sites; however, it could be considered that the splitting the presumption across those developments that are inside and those outside settlement boundaries could inertly push development towards larger towns, leaving villages and smaller market towns where needed homes are already in short supply and chronic affordability issues, with very little opportunity to grow.

There is support for residential and mixed-use development around ‘well connected’ railway stations outside settlements; but the new definition given to what ‘well connected’ means would rule out development near to the majority of train stations that are located in rural areas. This essentially overlooks genuine sustainable locations for new housing in these areas; a nuance point that has been ignored in the new NPPF.

The exception to allow development involving instances where LPA’s cannot demonstrate a five-year supply of housing need still applies, but this is restricted to where development would be ‘physically’ well related to an existing settlement. Such policy provisions overlook the unique needs of rural areas; this is despite rural settlements covering approximately 85% of the land mass of England and roughly 9.7 million people living in such places.

Notwithstanding the above, there are many development ‘hooks’ in the latest NPPF for housing in rural areas. For landowners and developers, working with experienced commercially aware planning teams will be vital to capitalise on the planning framework now available.

As the industry becomes more familiar with this new version of the NPPF, here at BoonBrown we will maintain an oversight and continue to monitor local planning committees, appeals and local plan progression to see how this national document impacts all aspects of town planning.  We will continue to ensure that our planning strategies and submissions remain robust in light of such a significant policy change.