Planning: Reform
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's consultation entitled Proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework and other changes to the planning system, updated 24 September 2024, whether she plans to take steps to ensure that design codes reflect local circumstances.
Answered by Alex Norris
The government’s recent consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework makes clear the importance of achieving well-designed places and how this can be achieved holistically through local design policies, design codes and guidance.
A clear framework exists through policy and guidance to support local planning authorities deliver well-designed places and to enable them to work together with the communities they serve to ensure the development of new homes responds to the positive and distinctive context and characteristics of an area. This can be through policies in the local plan, masterplans, guidance and design codes that are locally led.
Our continued commitment to well-designed homes and places is further supported through proposed updates to the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code in Spring 2025.
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