Cover story
• S1: Plans must plan for future growth needs, assessing needs for business, housing and infrastructure.
• S2( 1)( c): In an effort to infill between developments, safeguards protecting gaps should only be used where necessary to maintain identity and separation.
• S4: A tilted balance is established inside defined settlement boundaries and substantial adverse effects has become the weighting for application refusal.
Presumption outside settlements: For applications outside of settlements, the‘ default yes’ applies when it triggers specific categories identified in Policy S5( 1); eg: reuse, extension or existing buildings. Reuse of PDL. Limited infilling within groups of housing. Unmet need. Where walking distance to a train station is reasonable( 800 metres or a 10-minute walk))
The tilted balance can be overridden for policies demanding great weight, eg: national parks or landscape policies.
• HO11: Isolated homes in the countryside are only permitted where there is an essential, permanent need for a rural worker, or where it secures a heritage asset’ s future. Subdivisions bringing redundant or disused building back into a use and exceptional architectural design may also be permitted.
• L3: Minimum densities around rail stations have been weakened:
• 35 dwellings per hectare( dph) minimum density around well-connected stations( down from the draft’ s 40 dph proposal).
• 45 dph minimum density strictly near high-frequency stations served by at least eight trains per hour overall( down from the draft’ s 50 dph proposal).
• Those stations located outside the top 80 TTWAs are completely exempt from national minimum density targets.
Strategic site categories, SMEs and affordable housing
• Policy HO3: SDS will set housing supply requirements and should not be retested or litigated at the local plan level during examinations.
• HO6( 1)( a): LPA’ s must allocate at least 10 per cent of their housing requirement on small sites( less than 1 hectare) and a further 10 per cent on medium-sized sites.
• HO7: Substantial weight will be given when homes that contribute toward the evidenced accommodation needs of the local community are provided.
• HO8( 4): The Vacant Building Credit allows affordable housing contributions on redeveloped sites to be reduced by a proportionate amount equivalent to the gross floorspace of existing vacant buildings being repurposed.
• HO13: Developers and local authorities should build out permitted residential and strategic sites without unnecessary delay.
Climate change
• 9PM13: Local plans can set energy efficiency standards going beyond national Building Regulations, provided they have a“ clear and robustly costed rationale” and show no adverse impact on overall site viability and deliverability.
• Local water efficiency standards in areas experiencing water stress can also be more rigorous.
• CC3:‘ Substantial weight should be given to the benefits of improving the resilience of existing buildings and public spaces to anticipated climate change impacts where this would be achieved through proposals for development’. Green and Grey Belt
• GB3( 4): suitable land around wellconnected stations can more easily see green belt alterations.
• GB4: Villages should not be considered Green Belt if they are identified as a settlement.
• GB8: To adjust or bypass the mandatory Green Belt Golden Rules, planning applications must prove that previously developed land is“ demonstrably burdened” by unexpected costs associated with that previous development which were not taken into account at the plan-making stage.
Biodiversity
• N1( 2)
• N2( 3): BNG requirements exceeding the 10 per cent statutory objective can only be required if set out in up-to-date site allocations.
Developer planning obligations
• DM5: The price paid for land and the price intended to be paid through an option agreement can now not be used as a justification for failing to comply with local plan policies.
• DM6: National model planning obligations and conditions should be used unless there is a strong reason to depart from them.
Sport England remains a statutory consultee but the Gardens Trust and Theatre Trust have lost their qualification. Highways consultation thresholds are changed to‘ development requiring transport assessment’.”
Statutory Consultees
The Government has announced that is will explore a surcharge to help fund statutory consultees, while also encourage digitisation of services.
Sport England remains a statutory consultee but the Gardens Trust and Theatre Trust have lost their qualification. Highways consultation thresholds are changed to‘ development requiring transport assessment’. Active Travel England will not be consulted on commercials development or on development of fewer than 250 homes. The Environment Agency remains a statutory consultee.
Rico Wojtulewicz, NFB Director of Policy and Market Insight
Issue 22 | 2026 55