Recommendation 5

HM Government Acknowledged

11. This recommendation cuts across a range of plans, policies and tools, some of which are in the Town and Country planning system, and some of which sit outside the planning system and under different legislation. The planning system is deliberately designed to balance the competing needs and demands on a limited resource, land. The pressures on land are intense given that we are a relatively small but populous country. Those pressures are being felt more intensely than ever through, amongst other issues, the need to provide the housing and economic growth that the country needs, to ensure that we are providing a greater proportion of the food and energy that we need, and through the need to mitigate and adapt to climate change. 12. There are a range of legislative requirements for parts of the planning system to have regard to various duties, policies and plans. These are, where relevant, taken into account when considering changes to national planning policy, although some of those mentioned in this recommendation are more applicable at the local level. 13. The NPPF sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how these are expected to be applied. It provides a comprehensive Framework for local authorities to develop their own local plans and make decisions on planning applications. On 16 December 2025 Government published a consultation on a new NPPF which included proposed changes on how a number of the matters referred to in the recommendation should be taken into account in planning. This includes Local Nature Recovery Strategies, Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) and information on flood risk. 14. The Land Use Framework, due for publication in the coming weeks, will also help address this recommendation. The planning system only applies to development, but the Land Use Framework will set out evidence-based principles, processes and policy changes which will support decision makers to make better decisions about a wider range of land uses in England, across various sectors. 15. As outlined in the Land Use Consultation conducted last year, to help connect plans at different scales the Government will seek to collate relevant data generated through LNRSs and our biodiversity targets monitoring programme, share it with local leaders, and use it in the evaluation and development of national policy. 16. The 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, published in June, describes how the Government is enabling a more strategic and spatial approach to infrastructure planning in England. This will improve coordination between infrastructure and other place-based policies and programmes, including those related to the environment. 17. The newly established National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) will play a key role in enabling spatial infrastructure planning. This includes providing clear strategic and spatial direction with future updates to the 10 Year Infrastructure Plan setting out national spatial priorities for England; supporting greater integration and coverage of spatial plans for key infrastructure sectors, and working closely with departments, regulators, arms-length bodies and local delivery partners, to identify spatial trade-offs and synergies between infrastructure policies, plans and decisions in England. NISTA is working closely with Defra and other organisations to embed a natural capital approach into infrastructure policy and spatial planning. 18. To support the above, NISTA, in collaboration with MHCLG and other Departments including Defra, is leading the development of the Government’s new national infrastructure spatial tool: a single digital platform bringing together strategies, data and tools, including AI, to identify local infrastructure needs and constraints (e.g. energy, water and wastewater, transport, flood risk, digital telecoms) for housing, industrial growth and land use scenarios, including the environment. This tool will complement the forthcoming Government’s Land Use Framework.