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Guidance

National Planning Policy Framework, Annex A: Implementation

This is Annex A of the National Planning Policy Framework.

From:
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Published:
29 September 2026

Applies to England

This is Annex A of the National Planning Policy Framework.

For the purposes of decision-making

1. The policies in this Framework are material considerations which must be taken into account in decision-making from the day of its publication.

2. Development plan policies (or parts of those policies) which are materially inconsistent with national decision-making policies in this Framework should be given very limited weight. The only exception to this is where they have been examined and adopted[footnote 66] or made against this Framework. Other development plan policies[footnote 67] should not be given reduced weight simply because they were adopted prior to the publication of this Framework.

3. Where a local planning authority can demonstrate a 5 year supply of deliverable housing sites (with the appropriate buffer) and where the Housing Delivery Test indicates that the delivery of housing is more than 75% of the housing requirement over the previous three years, for the purposes of policy S5(1)(j), if the most up-to-date local housing need figure (calculated using the standard method set out in Annex D) is greater than the housing requirement set out in adopted development plan policies, this should not be considered as evidence of unmet need, for a period of 5 years from the date of the plan’s adoption.

For the purposes of plan-making

4. Any local plans minerals and waste plans and supplementary plans being prepared under Part 2 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023) and the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026 should be produced in accordance with this Framework.

5. Spatial development strategies should be produced in accordance with this Framework.

6. Neighbourhood plans that have been submitted to the local planning authority under Regulation 15[footnote 68], on or before, the date of publication of this Framework should be prepared in accordance with the Framework published in December 2024. Any neighbourhood plans that have not been submitted must comply with this Framework. For neighbourhood plans that have already been submitted, the qualifying body may choose to withdraw the plan and update it to take account of this Framework.

7. For all plans that should be produced in accordance with this Framework this means the policies in this version of the Framework will apply from 17 August 2026.

8. Any other plans should be produced in accordance with the version of this Framework published in December 2024, unless any of the transitional arrangements in Annex 1 to that Framework apply (in which case those transitional arrangements continue to apply).

Planning freedoms

9. The government will continue to explore with individual areas the potential for planning freedoms and flexibilities, for instance where this would facilitate an increase in the amount of housing that can be delivered.

Written ministerial statements and other planning policy documents which have been incorporated or superseded

10. The content of the following Written Ministerial Statements and other documents, where they relate to planning policies or decisions, has either been fully or partially incorporated within the National Planning Policy Framework or no longer represents up-to-date government policy:

  • Large-scale housing site delivery (13 February 2025)

  • Planning policy for traveller sites (12 December 2024)

  • Solar and protecting our Food Security and Best and Most Versatile (BMV) Land (15 May 2024)

  • The Next Stage in Our Long-Term Plan for Housing Update (19 December 2023)

  • Planning - Local Energy Efficiency Standards Update (13 December 2023)

  • Updated policy on planning for onshore wind development (5 September 2023)

  • An update on Levelling Up - Onshore Wind Development in England (6 December 2022)

  • Housing Update (15 December 2021)

  • Affordable Homes Update (24 May 2021)

  • Planning Update - Written Statement (1 October 2019)

  • Planning Independent Report on Build Out Rates and Permitted Development (13 March 2019)

  • Government’s new planning rulebook to deliver more quality, well-designed homes (24 July 2018)

  • Extending Buildings Upwards to Create New Homes (5 February 2018)

  • Neighbourhood Plans - Written Statement (12 December 2016)

  • Green Belt Protection and Intentional Unauthorised Development (17 December 2015)

  • Shale gas and oil policy (16 September 2015)

  • Giving local people the final say over onshore wind farms (18 June 2015)

  • Planning Update (25 March 2015)

  • Community Pubs (26 January 2015)

  • Sustainable Drainage Systems (18 December 2014)

  • Small-Scale Developers (1 December 2014)

  • Business, Innovation and Skills (10 October 2013)

  • Improving planning (3 September 2013)

  • Local Planning and Onshore Wind (1 June 2013)

  • Garden Development (9 June 2010)

  • Planning - Development on Garden Land (19 January 2010)

  • Draft National Policy Statements (9 November 2009)

  • Eco-towns and zero-carbon homes (16 July 2009)

11. The transitional arrangements set out in this annex apply to the use of policy within these statements, for both decision-making and plan-making.

This is Annex A of the National Planning Policy Framework

Continue to Annex B: Glossary.

Return to the National Planning Policy Framework homepage.

Footnotes

66. Reference to the ‘adoption’ of a plan in Annex A also applies to where a plan has been ‘approved’ by the Secretary of State. ↩

67. Including policies in made neighbourhood plans. ↩

68. Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012. ↩

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Published 29 September 2026

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