National Parks and planning in England

 

England’s National Parks are nationally protected landscapes of the highest importance for natural beauty, wildlife, cultural heritage and public enjoyment. There are 10 National Parks in England, with the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads included in the National Parks family but governed under its own legislation and planning arrangements.

National Park status does not prevent all development. Homes, rural businesses, agricultural development, community facilities and other proposals can still be acceptable. But planning decisions must respond to the statutory purposes of the National Park, the relevant development plan and the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework, which now groups National Parks, the Broads and National Landscapes together as Protected Landscapes.

 

Which National Parks are in England?

 

England’s ten National Parks are:

• the Broads
• Dartmoor
• Exmoor
• the Lake District
• the New Forest
• Northumberland
• the North York Moors
• the Peak District
• the South Downs
• the Yorkshire Dales

The Broads is unusual. It has the status of a National Park and is part of the English National Parks family, but it was created under the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads Act 1988 rather than being designated in the same way as the other nine. We explain its additional navigation purpose and separate planning system on our Broads planning page.

 

What are the statutory purposes of a National Park?

 

For the National Parks created under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, the two statutory purposes are:

• to conserve and enhance the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of the National Park
• to promote opportunities for understanding and enjoyment of its special qualities by the public

National Park Authorities also have a duty, when pursuing those purposes, to seek to foster the economic and social wellbeing of local communities within the Park.

Where the two National Park purposes conflict and cannot be reconciled, greater weight is given to conservation. This is commonly known as the Sandford Principle.

 

The strengthened duty to ‘seek to further’ National Park purposes

 

Section 245 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 strengthened the duty applying to public bodies and other relevant authorities in England.

Section 11A of the 1949 Act now requires a relevant authority exercising or performing functions in relation to, or so as to affect, land in a National Park in England to seek to further the purposes of the National Park. This replaced the older, weaker requirement simply to have regard to those purposes.

Defra’s Protected Landscapes duty guidance describes the duty as active. For development management, the authority should consider reasonable and proportionate measures which further the National Park purposes and should be able to show how it has addressed the duty.

The wording is important for sites outside the Park too: the duty applies where a function is exercised so as to affect land in the National Park.

 

Who decides planning applications in a National Park?

 

National Parks have specialist planning arrangements. In many cases the National Park Authority is the local planning authority for the Park. Some functions can be delegated or operated through agreements with constituent councils, so applicants should check the particular Park rather than assume the district council will determine the application.

The starting point remains the statutory development plan. National Park local plans commonly contain detailed policies on landscape character, settlement strategy, housing, rural businesses, design, biodiversity and the special qualities of the Park.

 

What does the August 2026 NPPF say?

 

Policy N4 applies to Protected Landscapes. Development within a National Park should be limited in scale and extent and sensitively located and designed to avoid harm to the statutory purposes and special qualities of the Park. The NPPF requires substantial weight to be placed on conserving and enhancing natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage in National Parks.

N4(4) also deals expressly with setting: proposals in the setting of a Protected Landscape should be sensitively located and designed to avoid or minimise adverse impacts on it. There is no fixed buffer around a National Park. A proposal outside the boundary may be relevant where it affects views, tranquillity, dark skies, landscape character, ecological relationships or other identified special qualities.

 

Major development: exceptional circumstances and public interest

 

For major development within a National Park, N4(2) says permission should be refused other than in exceptional circumstances and where the development is in the public interest.

The assessment includes the need for the development and its effect on the local economy; the cost and scope for developing elsewhere or meeting the need another way; and the environmental, landscape and recreational effects and the extent to which they can be moderated.

The NPPF definition for this purpose is not the normal ten-dwelling or one-hectare development-management threshold. Whether a proposal is major development is a matter for the decision-maker, taking account of its nature, scale and setting and whether it could significantly affect the statutory purposes of the National Park.

 

Permitted development in National Parks

 

National Park designation does not remove all permitted development rights. However, National Parks are both Article 2(3) land and Article 2(4) land under Schedule 1 to the GPDO. Different permitted development classes use those definitions for different restrictions.

That makes it particularly important to read the individual class. Our Article 2 protected land page explains the Schedule 1 definitions, and our dedicated guide to permitted development within a National Park covers common domestic rights.

 

National Parks and Environmental Impact Assessment

 

A National Park is a sensitive area under the Town and Country Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017.

If a proposal is of a description listed in Schedule 2 and any part would be carried out in a National Park, the normal Schedule 2 size or other threshold does not have to be exceeded before screening is required. EIA is not automatic; the question remains whether the proposal is likely to have significant effects on the environment.

See our guide to EIA screening and scoping.

 

What should a planning application consider?

 

A proportionate application should identify the relevant National Park purposes and special qualities, the development plan and current National Park management or partnership plan. Depending on the proposal, it may need to address landscape character, views, dark skies, tranquillity, biodiversity, cultural heritage, access and recreation, design and the effects on local communities.

Where harm is possible, the strongest schemes normally show how location, scale, layout, materials, lighting and landscaping have been used to avoid or minimise that harm and, where practical, how the proposal can positively further the Park purposes.

 

Relevant policy and legislation

 

• National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949
• Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, section 245
• Defra: Protected Landscapes duty guidance
• National Planning Policy Framework, August 2026, especially N4
• GPDO 2015, Schedule 1

 

Conservation, Heritage & Protected Sites

 

National Parks Page Updated: 20th August 2026