Our Response to the NPPF Consultation

With the NPPF consultation now closed, we look ahead to the final framework expected this summer. At Hardisty Jones we welcomed many of the proposed updates, while also offering feedback across four themes:

• Support for the overall direction of the NPPF
• A need for more consistent treatment of economic evidence
• Recognition that some sectors require tailored planning approaches
• Improving the definition of ‘well connected’ stations.

Broad support

We strongly supported the overall direction of the NPPF in areas such as: 

• Giving substantial weight to economic growth 
• Strengthening alignment with national strategies 
• Increasing flexibility to respond to fast‑changing markets 
• Improving clarity around business land, renewable energy, and infrastructure needs 
• But we stressed that policy updates must be matched by PPG updates, ensuring the planning system has the practical tools to implement them
• Strengthening the role of economic evidence in planning

Ensuring policies reflect real-world sector needs

Across several sections of the consultation, we emphasised the need for economic evidence to be given clearer and more consistent treatment: 

• Economic Assessments should be explicitly required where appropriate – especially if socio-economics is to be removed from EIA. 
• Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) needs to be updated to provide greater clarity to practitioners in the expectations of evidence. There have been multiple NPPF updates in recent years with no updates to PPG. 
• Clarifying expectations for evidence through PPG will help to align and improve consistency in economic evidence across the various tiers of Plan making.

Improving how ‘well-connected’ stations are defined

We highlighted that some sectors require planning policies tailored to operational realities: 

• In some cases, sectors such as manufacturing, R&D, and defence- require isolated, secure locations. Current drafting risks excluding legitimate and necessary forms of economic activity.
• Guidance is needed to distinguish between the needs of local, place based last mile needs for logistics and strategic national and regional demand which can consider much wider areas of search.
• The transition to low‑carbon and renewable energy must recognise supply chain and large‑site requirements. 
• Reducing the scope of Article 4 directions risks further loss of high‑quality office stock.