The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published on 27 March 2012. It is designed make the planning system less complex and more accessible, to protect the environment and to promote sustainable growth. It was accompanied by:

• Technical guidance to the NPPF covering flood risk and minerals policy. It retains key elements of PPS25 and existing minerals policy which are considered necessary to retention as an interim measure pending a wider review of planning guidance;
• Planning policy for traveller sites;
• Letter to Chief Planning Officers: NPPF giving details of a telephone helpline;
• The Planning Inspectorate also issued new advice to inspectors on the NPPF;
• Subsequently, DCLG published NPPF: Impact assessment.

The RTPI response was, "Overall, the Government has listened to the RTPI and others and the NPPF is a significant improvement on the draft".

Subsequently the RTPI has played a part in a Review of Planning Practice Guidance.  Following advice from the sector, the government reviewed all 7,000 pages of guidance which support the implementation of national planning policy and published a new version online.  This is in draft and does not supersede existing guidance.

RTPI action on national planning policy

The draft NPPF was published for consultation in July 2011. It was part of a review of planning policy, designed to consolidate all policy statements, circulars and guidance documents into a single, simpler National Planning Policy Framework.

After extensive engagement with our members, the RTPI responded to the consultation: letterand consultation questionnaire. We were critical of the draft saying, "We support the notion of consolidating national planning policy, yet the draft NPPF was in many respects a missed opportunity in that it is not a spatial document".

We published a discussion note on the NPPF as part of a series of briefings we produced on the Localism Act, setting out why the RTPI believed the NPPF must be on the face of the Localism Bill. The NPPF wasn't included in the Act.

We gave written and oral evidence to the Communities and Local Government Select Committeeinquiry into the NPPF. We supported the recommendations of the Committee, when the report was published in December 2011, saying, "We warmly welcome the Select Committee's report which strongly endorses many of our views". Prior to this the Commons Environmental Audit Committee held an inquiry into sustainable development in the draft NPPF to inform the CLG Committee Inquiry.

Summary of consultation responses: DCLG published a summary of the over 16,000 responses to the consultation.

For more information email: policy@rtpi.org.uk.