The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has submitted a response to the Government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)
In the response, the OEP calls for the new framework to include specific references to Environment Act targets.
Natalie Prosser, CEO of the OEP, said: “A feature of our recent findings more generally has been that incoherence between different policy levers and aims across government can hold back progress.
“We welcomed the recent joint letter from the MHCLG and Defra Secretaries of State to eNGOs, which indicated a move toward better join-up across these two policy areas, and would like to understand more about how Government intends to achieve a “win-win” for housebuilding and nature.
“Although not a change proposed in the consultation, we suggest the Government should also consider including explicit reference to Environment Act targets in the NPPF, such as is the case with the Climate Change Act 2008, and air quality limit values and national objectives.
“This is important to improve policy coherence.”
The OEP consultation response also welcomes the intention to improve spatial planning, as the organisation has previously identified that a lack of effective spatial prioritisation of actions for land and sea is hindering progress towards achieving the Environmental Improvement Plan (EIP) goal “thriving plants and wildlife”.
It also states that Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS) should be clearly identified in the NPPF as material considerations for decision makers. Making this clear would improve the potential for the strategies to reconcile development needs with contributing to nature’s recovery.
Within the proposals there is a commitment to securing access to good quality green space when Green Belt land is developed. The OEP consultation response states that it would support the proposed approach if the new rules were mandatory and there was greater clarity around the meanings of ‘good quality green space’ and ‘access’.
