The Planning Podcast

The new draft NPPF seeks to progress a vision-led approach to transport planning, but the guidance to support it has only been consulted upon with local authorities. As for the draft NPPF itself, there is a new approach to the "severe" test, and the Government wants more development around railway stations, but is suggesting it be limited to 800m.

In this fourth episode of the 'NPPF Flashpoint' series, Christopher Young KC and James Corbet Burcher are joined by Phil Jones (Chairman of PJA, a key author of  Manual for Streets (2007) and the lead author for Manual for Streets 2 (2010)) to discuss these issues.

Freight and logistics are a huge part of the UK Economy. The new draft NPPF provides for the first time a specific national policy for freight and logistics (Policy E3), and "substantial" weight is now to be given to economic development when there is unmet need, but there are still no targets for increasing capacity in the freight and logistics sector. 
In the third of the series on 'NPPF Flashpoints', Christopher Young KC and Christian Hawley are joined by Angie Fenton, Senior Director at Quod, and a Member of the British Property Federation's Industrial Committee and the London Industrial and Logistics Sounding Board, to discuss the impact of the draft Framework.

The Government has long recognised that there is a “critical” need for more specialist accommodation for elderly people. The UK has a rapidly aging population; 17% of the population in the USA and 13% of the population in Australia live in this type of accommodation, whereas in the UK, it is just 1%.
In the second of a series on 'NPPF Flashpoints', in relation to the draft NPPF presently out for consultation, Christopher Young KC and Leanne Buckley-Thomson of No5 Barristers'​ Chambers discuss the issues around this sector with Ellen Pearce, Planning Director at Inspired Villages, an Integrated Retirement Living operator.

The draft NPPF proposes to change the definition of Veteran Trees. Around 3 to 4 times as many trees may be covered by the new definition. A veteran tree with a diameter of 2 metres enjoys a protection zone around the trunk in a circle that measures 60 metres in diameter.
Plainly, this could present profound implications for some development proposals. Christopher Young KC and Jessica Allen are joined by leading Chartered Arboriculturalist Julian Forbes-Laird to discuss the issue and what developers and local authorities ought to be doing to investigate the implications for both allocated and unallocated development sites.
If there are potential implications, then LPAs and developers need to set out those implications in their responses to the consultation on the draft NPPF, which are due on 10th March.

Following the much-anticipated hand-down by the Supreme Court of judgment in CG Fry v SSHCLG [2025] UKSC 35, Daniel Henderson is joined by James Corbet Burcher and Chatura Saravanan to unpack the Court’s analysis of the two main issues, and the legal, policy, and practical implications going forward.