The Chartered Institution for Highways and Transportation (CIHT) has submitted its response to the UK Government’s consultation on proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
CIHT welcomes several improvements, including the restructuring of the document, while calling for stronger action to reduce car dependence, embed sustainable transport (pictured), and ensure inclusive design across all scales of development. CIHT believes that reducing the need to travel and prioritising active and public transport must become core placemaking objectives throughout the framework.
The institution supports the Government’s ambition for a more vision‑led, design‑focused planning system but concludes that the NPPF must go further to deliver genuinely sustainable, accessible, and health‑promoting places.
The UK Government previously proposed revisions to the NPPF in 2024, which were finalised and published in December that year. After publishing the latest draft, The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) said that the changes will ‘help optimise land use through well-designed, higher-density development, simplified biodiversity rules for smaller sites – and fast-track good housing projects that meet national standards for energy efficiency.’ The latest consultation, opened in December 2025, has now closed.
Key points CIHT highlighted in its response included:
- Stronger action is needed to reduce car dependence. The NPPF needs to place greater emphasis on sustainable locations, sustainable transport connectivity. Reducing the need to travel must be a core placemaking goal.
- Sustainable and inclusive transport – especially buses – must be a central consideration, with clearer guidance and better signposting to tools such as the Department for Transport (DfT) Connectivity Tool, Manual for Streets and Bus Service Improvement Plans. The NPPF must recognise that perceptions of safety, particularly for women and girls, are fundamental to walking, wheeling and public transport.
- Vague terminology in the draft NPPF risks weakening local authority powers and enabling development to take place in unsuitable locations, particularly in the case of small-scale developments and areas where housing land supply is constrained.
CIHT further emphasised the need for stronger support for bus services, warning that the revised NPPF makes only limited reference to buses despite their essential role in inclusive mobility and social equity. It calls for better guidance to ensure bus services are in place from day one of new developments, helping to prevent car‑centric travel habits becoming entrenched
CIHT says that it appreciates the Government’s ongoing commitment to an extensive planning reform programme and offer our ongoing support to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
(Picture: TfL)
