National development management policies: what they change
The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 created a category of national policy that sits inside the statutory decision test and beats a conflicting local plan policy. Here is how the machinery works and what to check before you cite it.
National development management policies are a category of national planning policy created by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. Once the Secretary of State designates one, it does not merely sit alongside the development plan as a material consideration. It enters the statutory decision test itself, and where it conflicts with a policy in the development plan the conflict is resolved in favour of the national policy. For anyone drafting a planning statement the practical question is narrow. Has anything been designated, and if so which local policies does it displace?
That question matters more than the drafting debate around it, because the answer changes what a decision maker is obliged to do rather than what they may choose to weigh.
What the policies are meant to do
The stated purpose is to strip out the material that appears, in near-identical form, in nearly every local plan in England. Green Belt wording, flood risk wording, heritage tests, standard highway safety formulations. Each authority currently reproduces a version of these, consults on them, defends them at examination and then applies them. The department's argument has been that plan making would be faster and plans shorter if that material sat nationally and local plans dealt only with what is local. Site allocations, settlement boundaries, local design expectations, the policies that vary from one authority to another.
Whether that saves as much time as claimed is arguable. Examination hearings rarely spend their days on boilerplate. But the direction of travel is clear enough from the structure of the current Framework, which was re-issued on 17 August 2026 organised by policy codes rather than the paragraph numbering practitioners had grown used to.
The statutory basis
The Act works by amendment rather than by creating a free-standing regime. It inserts a new provision into the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 giving the Secretary of State power to designate a policy, or a revision to a policy, as a national development management policy. It also amends section 38 of the 2004 Act and section 70 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, so that a decision maker determining an application must have regard to any designated policy and must apply it as part of the plan-led determination.
Designation is not automatic and it is not the same thing as publishing guidance. A policy only acquires this status when the Secretary of State designates it, and the Act attaches procedural conditions to that step. There has to be consultation and an opportunity for public participation, subject to exceptions where the revision is not material or where the Secretary of State considers the case urgent. Those exceptions are worth reading carefully, because they define how quickly national policy could be changed without any external scrutiny.
How they sit against the development plan
Under the ordinary section 38(6) test, an application is determined in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. National policy currently operates through that second limb. It can outweigh the plan, but only after a decision maker has identified a conflict, assessed the weight to give the plan policy, and explained the balance.
A designated national development management policy short-circuits that reasoning on the point it covers. The decision maker does not weigh it against the plan. They resolve the conflict in the national policy's favour and move on. There is no requirement to find the plan out of date, no need to run the tilted balance, and no scope to argue that the local policy reflects local circumstances. On that specific point, the local policy simply gives way.
Everything the designated policy does not cover continues to work exactly as before. A plan's housing requirement, its allocations, its settlement boundaries and its local design policies would all still apply in the ordinary way.
The precedence provision and its practical reach
Two features of the precedence rule repay attention.
The first is that it operates on conflict, and conflict has to be real. A local policy that says more than the national policy, or that addresses a different aspect of the same subject, is not necessarily in conflict with it. Arguing that a local requirement is displaced will mean showing genuine inconsistency rather than mere overlap. Expect that argument to be run optimistically by applicants and resisted by authorities.
The second is that the rule applies to the development plan as a whole. Neighbourhood plans form part of the development plan once made, so a made plan's policies would be caught by the same provision. A community that fought hard for a particular restriction could find it overridden on a national point without any local process at all.
| Instrument | Status in decisions | Effect of conflict with the plan |
|---|---|---|
| Adopted local plan policy | Part of the development plan | Applies unless material considerations indicate otherwise |
| Made neighbourhood plan policy | Part of the development plan | As above |
| Current Framework | Material consideration | Weighed against the plan by the decision maker |
| Designated national development management policy | Applied under the statutory test | Conflict resolved in favour of the national policy |
Where the position stands
The power exists. Whether any policy has been designated under it is a question of fact that has to be checked at the point of writing rather than assumed, and gov.uk is the only place to check it. Consultation drafts, ministerial speeches and press coverage are not designation. Neither is a change to the Framework, unless the Framework text is itself designated, which would have to be stated expressly.
This is the honest uncertainty in the subject. The planning provisions of the 2023 Act have been brought into force in stages, some parts have waited years for regulations, and the sequencing has shifted more than once. Anyone writing a policy section should give an "as at" date and stand behind that date only.
What plan makers are doing in the meantime
Authorities have carried on. Plans under examination have continued to include the standard development management material, because withdrawing it would leave a hole if designation slipped. Some have shortened those chapters and cross-referred to national policy instead of restating it, which is a reasonable hedge, though it makes a plan harder to use for anyone without the Framework open beside it.
Where an authority has adopted a plan on the strength of a particular national policy position, written ministerial statements and a holding direction remain the tools the department reaches for in the short term. Neither has the statutory reach of a designated policy. Strategic policy coordination across boundaries still runs through the duty to cooperate, which the 2023 Act legislated to replace with an alignment policy, again subject to the relevant provisions being brought into force.
Checking the position before you cite anything
Three habits keep a policy section defensible.
- Name the instrument and the date. "Section 38ZA of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, as inserted by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023" is checkable. "National policy requires" is not.
- Separate the power from its exercise. Say that the power exists and state, as a matter of fact on a given date, whether it has been used.
- Cite the Framework by its edition. The August 2026 edition uses policy codes, the December 2024 edition used renumbered paragraphs, and quoting a paragraph number from an older copy is the fastest way to lose credibility with a case officer.
If you are assembling an application pack and want to see which supporting documents the proposal is likely to need, browse the report types and start from the site rather than from a template.
This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Check the current position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.
Frequently asked questions
Are national development management policies in force yet?
The power to designate them exists under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, but designation is a separate act by the Secretary of State and has to be checked on gov.uk rather than assumed. Until a policy has been designated under the new section 38ZA, there is nothing for the precedence rule to bite on and the development plan applies in the ordinary way.
How is a national development management policy different from the NPPF?
The Framework is national policy that counts as a material consideration. A designated national development management policy sits inside the statutory test in section 38(6) of the 2004 Act and in section 70(2) of the 1990 Act, so a decision maker has to apply it as part of the plan-led determination and resolve any conflict with the development plan in its favour.
Would a designated policy override a neighbourhood plan?
A made neighbourhood plan forms part of the development plan, so it would be caught by the same precedence rule. Where a neighbourhood plan policy conflicted with a designated national policy on the same point, the conflict would be resolved in favour of the national policy. The rest of the neighbourhood plan would continue to apply as normal.
Can the public comment before a policy is designated?
The Act requires consultation and public participation before designation, with narrow exceptions for revisions that are not material and for urgent cases. In practice that means a published draft and a consultation window run by the department. Responses are the only realistic point of influence, because there is no examination in public of the kind a local plan goes through.
What should a planning statement say about them now?
State the position as at the date of the statement, cite the statutory provision rather than commentary, and say plainly whether any relevant policy has been designated. If none has, rely on the development plan and the current Framework edition. Avoid describing a consultation draft as though it already carried statutory weight, because that is a straightforward ground for challenge.
Sources and further reading
This article is general guidance about the planning system in England and, where stated, the rest of the UK. It is not legal or professional advice. Check your local planning authority’s validation requirements and take professional advice for your specific site.