National Planning Policy Framework
The National Planning Policy Framework was published by the UK's Department of Communities and Local Government in March 2012, consolidating over two dozen previously issued documents called Planning Policy Statements (PPS) and Planning Policy Guidance Notes (PPG) for use in England.
On 20 December 2010, the Minister for Decentralization and Planning, Greg Clark MP, announced a review of planning policy, designed to consolidate all policy statements, circulars and guidance documents into a single, simpler National Planning Policy Framework.
A consultation draft of the NPPF was subsequently published on 25 July 2011 which raised a large number of responses and concerns from national organizations such as the National Trust.
The final version was published on 27 March 2012. Despite the pledge for a national policy of only fifty pages, the NPPF was released with as a 65 page document, together with a 27 page Technical Guidance document, though this was still a large reduction from the previous guidance of over 1300 pages. Local planning authorities were given a 12-month transition period to ensure their plans were compliant with the new NPPF.
The potential negative impact of the NPPF on UK archaeology has been heavily debated, with archaeologists noting that there is likely to be considerable tension between the immediate-term impacts of the process of government deregulation in the NPPF and the medium-term impacts of another key government priority – its localism agenda as enshrined in the Localism Act of 2011, which places much greater planning control in the hands of local communities. The NPPF is likely to encourage development through its streamlined planning system, but the Localism Act of 2011 is equally likely to stall development through its commitment to local communities having a greater say in what is (and crucially is not) built in their neighbourhood, a process likely to block many developments.
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