NPPF Chapter 11: Making Effective Use of Land

NPPF Chapter 11: Making Effective Use of Land

Paragraph 119. Planning policies and decisions should promote an effective use of land in meeting the need for homes and other uses, while safeguarding and improving the environment and ensuring safe and healthy living conditions. Strategic policies should set out a clear strategy for accommodating objectively assessed needs, in a way that makes as much use as possible of previously-developed or brownfield land.

Paragraph 120. Planning policies and decisions should:
a) encourage multiple benefits from both urban and rural land, including through mixed use schemes and taking opportunities to achieve net environmental gains;
b) recognise that some undeveloped land can perform many functions, such as for wildlife, recreation, flood risk mitigation, cooling/shading, carbon storage or food production;
c) give substantial weight to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements for homes and other identified needs;
d) promote and support the development of under-utilised land and buildings, especially if this would help to meet identified needs for housing where land supply is constrained and available sites could be used more effectively;
e) support opportunities to use the airspace above existing residential and commercial premises for new homes.

Paragraph 124. Planning policies and decisions should support development that makes efficient use of land, taking into account:
a) the identified need for different types of housing and other forms of development, and the availability of land suitable for accommodating it;
b) local market conditions and viability;
c) the availability and capacity of infrastructure and services;
d) the desirability of maintaining an area's prevailing character and setting (including residential gardens);
e) the importance of securing well-designed, attractive and healthy places.

Paragraph 125. Where there is an existing or anticipated shortage of land for meeting identified housing needs, it is especially important that planning policies and decisions avoid homes being built at low densities, and ensure that developments make optimal use of the potential of each site.