Our NPPF 2026 Update – Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework.
By CAD Architects
On 17th August 2026, the UK government published an overhauled and restructured National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), following an extensive consultation process between December 2025 and March 2026.
This 130-page document replaced the previous December 2024 version of the National Planning Policy Framework with a new rules-based system designed to accelerate housebuilding and economic growth in England.
Across all of our three CAD divisions; CAD Architects, CAD Heritage and CAD Planning, we have been anticipating this important update to the NPPF and we have been assessing the revised edition to advise our collective divisional thoughts.
At CAD Architects, a leading architecture firm with residential and commercial clients across the South West including Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset, we are pleased to briefly summarise the key changes in the NPPF for you here.
For more on how the NPPF 2026 changes impact Heritage and Planning based projects, please see our respective CAD Heritage & CAD Planning comments on our other division websites available via the following links:
CAD Heritage National Planning Policy Framework Update
CAD Planning National Planning Policy Framework Update
Policy Changes in the NPPF 2026
The revised NPPF includes a 20-chapter structure that separates plan-making and decision-making policies. The decision-making policies are material considerations of critical importance.
The new structure has been described by legal and design experts as the most significant shift in a generation. RIBA president Chris Williamson called the updated framework a “critical moment for planning reform”, noting that “there is much to welcome in the new National Planning Policy Framework, and the government's ambition to overhaul the planning system is clear”. Chris Williamson also emphasised the need to protect design quality, a factor highly important to us as architects.
- Presumption in Favour of Sustainable Development: Development inside defined settlement boundaries receives strong ‘in-principle’ support. The new framework recalibrates the within-settlements test under Policy S4, requiring approval unless adverse effects "substantially outweigh" the benefits. Policy S3 recommends proposals, in accordance with both an up-to-date development plan and national decision-making policies, to be approved without delay.
- Community Asset Protection: The framework strengthens the existing approach to retaining valued facilities, including public houses, where their loss can reasonably be avoided. This will increase the reliance on resilient viability assessments for proposals that impact these assets.
- Green Belt and Grey Belt: Includes the establishment of “Golden Rules” for major housing developments built on released Green Belt or Grey Belt land. These mandate strict infrastructure contributions and public green space, alongside new affordability benchmarks, based on delivering 15 percentage points more affordable housing than the existing local council policy (where relevant development-plan requirements are not yet in place). This is capped at a maximum of 50% across England. Policy GB8 also sets out exclusions and limited circumstances in which viability evidence may be submitted.
- Flood Risk and Drainage: Previous flood guidance is replaced by nine dedicated coded policies (F1 to F9) of which sustainable drainage systems are referenced.
- Making effective use of land: Policy L2 encourages the redevelopment of underutilised land and empty buildings, but also notes opportunities to provide additional, carefully designed, development to residential and commercial properties. Maximising the use of residential curtilages through considered design proposals can also be considered appropriate unless proposals result in “harm to the overall character of the area”.
To see the new NPPF 2026 framework in full please see the following link here.
Our View
At CAD Architects, we welcome the updated NPPF and its aims to significantly speed up the planning process, contributing to accelerated housebuilding and economic growth. We hope this objective is achieved in practice, but we will remain adaptive to differing interpretations of these policies from local level across the south west.
From our perspective, as architects, one significant issue is how proposals demonstrate good design alongside their environmental and social benefits. The framework places emphasis on the design of healthy, safe and inclusive places, factors which we have long considered within our design approach. We will continue to consider how our schemes address environmental performance, accessibility and community needs, with the level of supporting information appropriate to its scale and location.
For homeowners and small developers, the revised framework may open up opportunities to make better use of their land or site. Opportunities could include forming a plot or independent site to serve as an additional home, constructing more floorspace, or undertaking wider redevelopment proposal for an existing dwelling or site, such as a replacement dwelling.
The prospective commercial potential of any site will depend on what can be well designed and justified against the development plan and national policy. We test those constraints early in our project involvement to help our clients focus investment on proposals with a realistic prospect of approval.
If you need an architect to assist you, we would be pleased to discuss what the new framework could mean for your site. To find out more about the NPPF 2026 or for a no-obligation discussion about your own residential or commercial architecture project, email us at studio@cad-architects.co.uk