Not just housing: What could the UK’s revised NPPF mean for commercial development?

In this first article, we look at how the proposed reforms could impact those involved in bringing forward commercial development.

For anyone who first needs a little background, fewer than four weeks into office,  the rebranded Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published its proposed amendments to the National Planning Policy Framework ("NPPF"), alongside a detailed public consultation on the revisions as well as other proposed changes to the planning system. This was backed up by numerous Ministerial statements and letters. When taken together, major changes are on the cards.

Commercial development at the heart of economic growth

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has made it very clear that government's goal is to deliver economic growth through "stability, investment and reform". Critical to the desire to advance economic growth is the need to support commercial development. 

There are two key ways in which the government plans to support commercial development through the proposed reforms:

1. Identifying key strategic commercial development sectors to help to identify sites for commercial development;
2. Strengthening the obligation on local planning authorities to collaborate across borders to support commercial development; and
3. Promoting the "right" kind of development on brownfield, (the new) grey belt and the green belt.

Driving the engine of the UK's economy

The consultation talks of the need to change "the planning system to drive greater commercial development in those sectors which will be the engine of the UK's economy". In order to do this, the proposed amendments to the NPPF require commercial development sites to be identified in planning policy. 

As a priority, the government has named four key industries which it deems to be of particular importance (although it is worth noting that the consultation asks whether any further industries should be included). These are laboratories, gigafactories, digital infrastructure (including data centres), and freight and logistics. The proposed amendments to the NPPF state that, when considering where best to locate these, and other commercial developments, thought should be given to the facilities and infrastructure needed. Ultimately, the changes seem to be trying to encourage the positive consideration of commercial uses which are considered to support wider economic growth. Meanwhile, the consultation  asks whether consenting for developments of this nature should, in certain circumstances, be brought within the nationally significant infrastructure project regime. We’ll cover that in more detail in our third article in this series.

Expanding strategic collaboration

Although the duty to cooperate already exists for local planning authorities and county councils, the proposed amendments to the NPPF take this further by requiring that, once matters needing collaboration have been identified, plan policies are consistent where there is a strategic relationship "unless there is a clear justification to the contrary". This means that it will no longer be an excuse for producing an unconnected plan to say that plans for a neighbouring authority are awaited or not being published at the same time. In fact, the proposed amendments make it clear that authorities should act on available information "rather than waiting for a full set of evidence from other authorities". It will certainly be interesting to see if this strengthened obligation works to bring forward sites for the key industries noted above.

The brown, the grey and the green

In an attempt to expand the areas in which commercial development (and housing) can be delivered, the consultation proposes the "targeted release of grey belt land".  Building on brownfield land is still preferred but, where a local planning authority cannot meet the commercial needs of the area through other means, the amendments to the NPPF encourage authorities to carry out a review of the green belt. This review should aim to identify appropriate land which has been previously-developed. If this isn't possible, the authority should consider grey belt land and then, finally, the release of other sustainable land in the green belt. In other words, commercial need would be treated as an exceptional circumstance under which green belt boundaries can be altered and land released. 

But what exactly is grey belt land? It is defined in the consultation as land in the green belt which "makes a limited contribution to the green belt's purposes" (being the five purposes set out in the current NPPF for which no changes are proposed). The idea is to exclude any land which has existing environmental value but to include land which, for example, contains "substantial built development" or which is "dominated by urban uses". The consultation asks for views on both the definition of grey belt and the guidance on what constitutes a "limited contribution to the green belt's purposes", as well as the proposals to allow the release of green belt land for commercial development more generally. With a clear emphasis on increasing housing supply throughout the consultation materials, it will be important to understand whether the government expects there to be a hierarchy or balance between residential and commercial development proposals in terms of justifying green belt release.

What's next

The public consultation runs until 24 September, with scope for submitting responses online, or by post, and the government has indicated that it aims to confirm the changes to the NPPF before the end of the year. We can also expect the new Planning and Infrastructure Bill (as announced in the King’s Speech) to be published in the first session of Parliament starting in the Autumn.

Commercial developments aren't the only schemes which are set to be impacted by the proposed NPPF changes. In our next article we tackle the significant proposed changes aimed at stimulating housing, with the final article exploring the implications of the proposed reforms on energy and infrastructure. As always, if you have any questions on the above, or anything else included in the consultation, please do get in touch with your usual Hogan Lovells planning contact.

Authored by Rosie Shields, Robert Gowing and David Wood.