NPPF HE10: Loss or removal of heritage assets

HE10: Loss or removal of heritage assets 1. Where a development proposal would result in the loss of the whole or part of a heritage asset (whether designated or not): a. The development should not be approved without all reasonable steps being taken to ensure that the new development will proceed after the loss has occurred, including through the use of planning conditions and planning obligations to secure the development against the loss of the asset; and b. The applicant should record and advance understanding of the significance of the asset to be lost in a manner proportionate to its importance and the potential impact upon it; and should make this evidence (and any archive generated) publicly accessible by depositing it in the relevant Historic Environment Record, and any archives with a local museum or other public depository. The ability to record evidence of our past should not be a decisive factor in deciding whether such loss should be approved. 2. Heritage assets with archaeological interest should be preserved in situ where feasible. Where an asset cannot be preserved or managed on-site, appropriate provision should be made for the investigation, understanding, recording, dissemination and archiving of that asset, which should be undertaken by suitably-qualified individuals or organisations. 3. Development proposals to remove or alter a historic statue, plaque, memorial or monument (whether listed or not), should retain the feature in situ where possible (and, where appropriate, be supported by an explanation of their historic and social context). Annex A: Implementation For the purposes of decision-making 1. The policies in this Framework are material considerations which must be taken into account in decision-making from the day of its publication. 2. Development plan policies (or parts of those policies) which are materially inconsistent with national decision-making policies in this Framework should be given very limited weight. The only exception to this is where they have been examined and adopted66 or made against this Framework. Other development plan policies67 should not be given reduced weight simply because they were adopted prior to the publication of this Framework. 3. Where a local planning authority can demonstrate a five year supply of deliverable housing sites (with the appropriate buffer) and where the Housing Delivery Test indicates that the delivery of housing is more than 75% of the housing requirement over the previous three years, for the purposes of policy S5(1)(j), if the most up-to-date local housing need figure (calculated using the standard method set out in Annex D) is greater than the housing requirement set out in adopted development plan policies, this should not be considered as evidence of unmet need, for a period of five years from the date of the plan’s adoption. For the purposes of plan-making 4. Any local plans minerals and waste plans and supplementary plans being prepared under Part 2 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 (as amended by the Levelling- up and Regeneration Act 2023) and the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2026 should be produced in accordance with this Framework. 5. Spatial development strategies should be produced in accordance with this Framework. 6. Neighbourhood plans that have been submitted to the local planning authority under Regulation 1568, on or before, the date of publication of this Framework should be prepared in accordance with the Framework published in December 2024. Any neighbourhood plans that have not been submitted must comply with this Framework. For neighbourhood plans that have already been submitted, the qualifying body may choose to withdraw the plan and update it to take account of this Framework. 7. For all plans that should be produced in accordance with this Framework this means the policies in this version of the Framework will apply from August 2026. 8. Any other plans should be produced in accordance with the version of this Framework published in December 2024, unless any of the transitional arrangements in Annex 1 to that Framework apply (in which case those transitional arrangements continue to apply). Reference to the ‘adoption’ of a plan in annex A also applies to where a plan has been ‘approved’ by the Secretary of State. Including policies in made neighbourhood plans. Neighbourhood Planning (General) Regulations 2012. Planning freedoms 9. The government will continue to explore with individual areas the potential for planning freedoms and flexibilities, for instance where this would facilitate an increase in the amount of housing that can be delivered. Written Ministerial Statements and other planning policy documents which have been incorporated or superseded 10. The content of the following Written Ministerial Statements and other documents, where they relate to planning policies or decisions, has either been fully or partially incorporated within the Na