Changes to the NPPF 2023
The long-awaited changes to the NPPF!
TL;DR – Changes to renewable and low-carbon energy to ensure their future re-powering and life extension. The benefits of utilising an established site are given significant weight.
The 2023 NPPF can be accessed here.
Following months of speculation and debate over the changes to the NPPF a revised version has been released that alters Paras 155 and 158 on renewable and low carbon energy. In summary these are:
(changes in bold)
NPPF 2021 Para 155(a):
“To help increase the use and supply of renewable and low carbon energy and heat, plans should:
a) Provide a positive strategy for energy from these sources, that maximises the potential for suitable development, while ensuring that adverse impacts are addressed satisfactorily (including cumulative landscape and visual impacts);”
NPPF 2023 now reads, Para 155(a):
“To help increase the use and supply of renewable and low carbon energy and heat, plans should:
a) Provide a positive strategy for energy from these sources, that maximises the potential for suitable development, and their future re-powering and life extension, while ensuring that adverse impacts are addressed appropriately (including cumulative landscape and visual impacts);”
NPPF 2023 adds Para 158 (c):
“When determining planning applications for renewable and low carbon development, local planning authorities should:
c) In the case of applications for the repowering and life-extension of existing renewable sites, give significant weight to the benefits of utilising an established site, and approve the proposal if its impacts are or can be made acceptable.”
Footnote 53a Wind energy development involving one or more turbines can also be permitted through Local Development Orders, Neighbourhood Development Orders and Community Right to Build Orders. In the case of Local Development Orders, it should be demonstrated that the planning impacts identified by the affected local community have been appropriately addressed and the proposal has community support.
NPPF 2021, Footnote 54:
Except for applications for the repowering of existing wind turbines, a proposed wind energy development involving one or more turbines should not be considered acceptable unless it is in an area identified as suitable for wind energy development in the development plan; and, following consultation, it can be demonstrated that the planning impacts identified by the affected local community have been fully addressed and the proposal has community support.
NPPF 2023, Footnote 54:
Except for applications for the repowering and life-extension of existing wind turbines, a planning application for wind energy development involving one or more turbines should not be considered acceptable unless it is in an area identified as suitable for wind energy development in the development plan or a supplementary planning document; and, following consultation, it can be demonstrated that the planning impacts identified by the affected local community have been appropriately addressed and the proposal has community support.
NPPF 2023, Para 221 has been altered to refer to the previous NPPF 2021 and Para 222 has been inserted, which reads:
“222. For the purposes of the policy on renewable and low carbon energy and heat in plans in paragraph 155, these policies apply only to plans that have not reached Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012 (pre-submission) stage, or that reach this stage within three months, of the publication of this version. For Spatial Development Strategies, this applies to plans that have not reached consultation under section 335(2) of the Greater London Authority Act 1999, or are within three months of reaching this stage. For all other plans, the policy contained in the corresponding paragraph in the National Planning Policy Framework published in July 2021 will apply.”