‘A pretty bold swing’: New NPPF ushers in an era of permissive, nationally-led planning policy but could be scuppered by viability crisis

By Daniel Gayne2026-08-21T06:00:00

Source: MHCLG / Flickr

The much-awaited new national planning framework was published earlier this week, with a suite of pro-development policies. But builders are already warning that getting consent is only half of the story. Daniel Gayne reports

When the first National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was introduced back in 2012, the idea was that it would provide the consistency and certainty needed for developers to crack on and build at scale.

With this being the eighth revision of the document in less than a decade, the government will be hoping this will be the last big planning shake-up for a good few years.

With that in mind, Building combed through the 128-page document and spoke to top planning experts to find out what the new set of planning rules will mean for the sector.

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