How to Level Up Strategic Planning Policy

Back in May 2022, the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill included the option for local authorities to jointly prepare a Spatial Development Strategy (SDS). Now the Bill has become an Act, there is the need for Government to make amendments to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and give it an appropriate framework and national policy to steer and incentivise SDSs.

This article explores a selection of sections in the December 2023 NPPF that relate to plan-making and what, in our view, needs to be considered and amended following the wider review of the NPPF to come. Please click here to read our piece on how to level up strategic planning policy.