Planning policy in England: the NPPF, PPG and how the rules are set

Planning decisions are made inside a legal framework, but many of the questions that decide whether development is acceptable are questions of planning policy: where development should go, what should be protected, how much housing is needed, what design standards matter and how competing benefits and harms should be weighed.

This is the Planning Geek home for planning policy in England. It links the statutory development plan with the National Planning Policy Framework, Planning Practice Guidance, housing delivery rules and the national decision-making policies introduced in August 2026.

Planning policy is not the same as planning law

Planning legislation decides matters such as what amounts to development, when planning permission is required, what application and appeal routes exist, and what powers planning authorities have. Planning policy is different: it guides the planning judgments made within that statutory system.

So policy cannot amend an Act of Parliament or create a permitted development right. But it can be decisive when an authority or Inspector has to judge whether proposed development is acceptable in principle and what weight should be given to competing considerations.

The development plan comes first

Under section 38 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, planning decisions are made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

The development plan is wider than just the council’s local plan. Depending on the area it can include a Spatial Development Strategy (the London Plan in Greater London), local plan, minerals and waste plan, supplementary plan, made neighbourhood plan and the policies map. Our guide to local plans explains the current 2026 system and the transition from the old plan-making rules.

Our dedicated guide to the development plan explains which documents form the statutory plan, how section 38(6) works, the 2026 transition from legacy plans, and the important difference between an old SPD and a new Supplementary Plan. If a replacement Local Plan is still being prepared, our guide to emerging Local Plan weight and prematurity explains what the draft policies can and cannot do.

Where the August 2026 NPPF fits

The NPPF is the Government’s national planning policy framework for England. The Framework itself describes it as a material consideration of critical importance in plan-making and decision-making.

If you are reading an older appeal, report or local plan, our NPPF timeline follows every published Framework from 2012 to 2026 and links to each archived PDF.

For a direct side-by-side explanation of the replacement policy architecture, see our NPPF 2024 vs 2026 comparison. For one of the more unusual design routes, our guide to outstanding design under DP3 and the HO11 isolated-home exception explains where design quality can carry substantial weight and where it must satisfy the much tougher exceptional-house test.

The NPPF is not the whole of national planning policy. The separate National Planning Policy for Waste continues to apply, relevant Written Ministerial Statements can contain national planning policy, and National Policy Statements provide the principal policy framework for nationally significant infrastructure projects.

The August 2026 Framework separates plan-making policies from national decision-making policies. It expressly says that plan-making policies should not be used as decision-making tests on development proposals.

Annex A is especially important when national and local policy pull in different directions. An existing development plan policy, or part of a policy, which is materially inconsistent with a national decision-making policy should be given very limited weight. There is a specific exception where the relevant policy has been examined and adopted, or a neighbourhood plan made, against the August 2026 Framework. Other older policies should not lose weight merely because they pre-date the new NPPF.

Planning Practice Guidance supports the policy

Planning Practice Guidance (PPG) contains the Government’s detailed online guidance on applying many parts of the planning system. The NPPF describes the PPG as having an important but supporting role in implementing national planning policy. Older national guidance can also remain relevant through Planning Circulars, although some circulars have been replaced or cancelled and their current status needs checking before they are relied upon.

The PPG can explain calculations, evidence requirements and practical methodology – for example housing need, viability, flood risk and housing supply. Because individual guidance topics are revised separately, always check the update date on the topic being relied upon. As at 18 August 2026, for example, the live Housing Supply and Delivery guidance is still dated 12 December 2024 and continues to refer to the old paragraph 11(d) and paragraph 78 framework, so it has not yet fully caught up with the new NPPF.

The new presumption: S3 to S6

The August 2026 NPPF replaced the old paragraph 11 tilted-balance machinery with policies S3 to S6. S4 gives strong support to development within settlements, while S5 deals with development outside settlements. One important S5 route concerns residential and mixed-use development around a qualifying well-connected station, where the Travel to Work Area containing the station, service frequency and walking relationship matter. S6 gives particular protection to qualifying recent neighbourhood plans.

The meaning of settlement is now nationally defined and is not always identical to a line on a policies map. Start with our guides to the presumption in favour of sustainable development and settlement boundaries. If the practical question is whether a field or plot beyond that boundary can now gain permission, see our guide to building outside a settlement boundary under the 2026 NPPF.

Housing policy: need, land supply and delivery

Housing policy has several moving parts and they answer different questions. A SHLAA looks at potential land. The five year housing land supply looks forward at the deliverable housing pipeline. The Housing Delivery Test looks backwards at how many homes were actually delivered.

Our guide to local housing need and the standard method explains the minimum need figure and how it differs from the housing requirement in the development plan. It is the essential link between the development plan, Annex D and the five year housing supply calculation.

If policy is the reason for refusal

Planning applications are frequently refused because an authority considers a proposal contrary to development plan or national policy. An appeal is a fresh planning decision on the merits and uses the policy position current when the appeal is determined.

See our planning appeals section if you are dealing with a refusal, or our planning applications section if you are preparing a proposal.

Other Planning Policy Sections

Planning Policy Page Updated: 30th August 2026