Planning in focus

This is likely to have significant, and largely positive, implications for planning policy as it affects rural development. If implemented as intended, it should make the planning system easier to navigate and reduce risk for certain types of development.

As the strong turnout at our recent webinar demonstrated, there is already considerable interest in the opportunities these changes could unlock.

We look forward to seeing these start to take effect later this year and help our clients to benefit from new opportunities to bring forward high-quality development on rural sites.

Planning success

We haven’t seen much in the way of faster planning decisions yet in 2026, but even so, we have been pleased to see the volume of planning consents delivered for clients in the first couple of months of the year, with twenty planning applications decided successfully.

These have covered a range of types and scales of development and a broad spread of geographies. They include several new dwellings approved using the lighter touch, Permission in Principle (PiP) planning route. As well as a nine-house PiP scheme granted at appeal in an area with a housing land supply shortfall, where we supported the application and appeal with evidence to demonstrate the village was a sustainable location to host new development.

We were also delighted to successfully implement the start of a planning strategy on a tricky site to deliver a PiP approval for an innovative scheme to convert an underground reservoir building into three homes.

Beyond individual homes and housing developments, we secured consent for a key enabling project within an estate village masterplan, aimed at enhancing both visitor and resident experience in a highly constrained heritage setting. Continuing this heritage-led focus, we also obtained planning permission for an educational establishment within a national park, allowing it to expand its early years provision within a historic building on its estate.

A good start to the year, and plenty more in the pipeline!

Planning reform

As well as supporting our clients’ planning journeys, we’ve been considering the impact of the proposed changes to planning policy and responding to the consultation on the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Designed to create a more enabling planning environment, the proposals include the standardisation of a range of nationally applied directives, the wider application of more proportionate planning routes for certain types of development and changes to the policy framework to support development on a far wider range of sites.

As we shared in a recent article explaining the proposals, these reforms are really significant for rural development and have the potential to be a powerful force for good in the countryside. To ensure these opportunities are maximised, we put forward some suggestions in our response to the Government, including:

• Proposed amendments that would enable development on brownfield sites adjacent to rural settlements in some circumstances, and;
• A more nuanced approach to considering the development of sites close to train stations to ensure rural locations with existing rail links benefit from this policy shift.

One proposal we identified as a concern was the use of a standard “Connectivity Tool” to assess how well a site is linked to transport infrastructure. In our view, this is too simple a measure for evaluating development proposals, as more peripheral rural areas and settlements are inherently less well connected than urban centres and larger towns.

We presented this case strongly in our response and understand that other rural advocates did the same, so we are hopeful this will be revised in the final draft to avoid it being used to refuse development, which would be sustainable in a rural context.

A more enabling planning environment

It remains to be seen what the final NPPF will say, but we do not anticipate major changes from the consultation draft and expect this to be implemented in the summer. This will then pave the way for a far more enabling planning environment with the potential to boost rural economic and housing growth.

The Government has also opened a consultation on proposed areas in England where Spatial Development Strategies (SDS) should be prepared. The consultation recognises that England’s housing needs cannot be met without planning for growth across local authority boundaries, signalling a potential return to wider strategic planning for the first time since Regional Spatial Strategies were abolished in 2010.

SDSs are expected to identify preferred growth locations, offering clearer direction and creating new opportunities for landowners with sites that have strategic development potential.

Get in touch

If you would like to understand the opportunities that some of these revised planning policies may present for your development interests, please get in touch at info@ruralsolutions.co.uk.

Shelley Jones is a Director in the Planning team at Rural Solutions