Government planning reforms through the National Planning Policy Framework announced this week have moved significantly towards recommendations Curia has developed through years of work on housing, infrastructure, and regional growth. As power over planning, transport and investment increasingly moves to England’s mayors, Curia is now turning its attention to the next question: how can devolution turn national reform into local delivery?
A significant change in the planning system
The Government’s new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) marks one of the most significant changes to England’s planning system in recent years.
Published on 17 August, the new framework aims to make planning decisions more certain, consistent and streamlined, standardise policies that apply across England and reduce unnecessary duplication and local deviation. Unlike many previous National Planning Policy Framework reforms, its new decision-making policies took effect immediately.
Alongside that structural change are a series of measures intended to unlock housing and economic growth. The Government has strengthened its “default yes” for appropriate development around well-connected railway stations, extending the policy to stations within the top 80 Travel to Work Areas by Gross Value Added. It has created a distinct category for strategic sites of around 1,500 homes or more, encouraged greater density where infrastructure can support it and introduced greater flexibility for the redevelopment of large retail and similar sites.
“The new NPPF confirms reforms to make planning policy easier to use, underpin the development of faster and simpler local plans, and provide a clearer basis for decision-making.” Matthew Pennycook MP, Minister of State for Housing and Planning
Ministers are also reforming the statutory consultee system, arguing that unnecessary referrals and delayed advice can hold back development. Changes will affect bodies including Active Travel England, National Highways and Historic England, while the Government has committed to further work on local authority planning capacity and capability.
For Curia, these announcements matter because many of the problems the Government is now attempting to solve have featured prominently in the policy institute’s research for several years.
From planning uncertainty to greater predictability
Perhaps the clearest example can be found in Curia’s Transforming Communities report.
Evidence presented to Curia’s Commission identified planning risk and uncertainty as a fundamental problem affecting housebuilding. British urbanist, planning commentator and founder/chairman of Create Streets, Nicholas Boys Smith MBE argued that England had developed a “development controlled system, rather than a regulatory plan led system”.
The Commission went further in its formal recommendations. It called on government to strengthen the full housebuilding supply chain, from the National Planning Policy Framework through local planning authorities and the businesses responsible for construction. Crucially, it argued that this required clear, long-term regulation and support for housebuilding and sustainability.
Two years later, the Government is explicitly restructuring the National Planning Policy Framework policy around greater certainty, consistency, and clearer national expectations.
Whilst Curia cannot claim that one report caused that change, following discussions organised in Parliament it can point to a substantial convergence between the problems its Commission identified and the solutions now being pursued nationally.
The move towards the clearer, more predictable and plan-led planning system that Curia’s work advocated has been welcomed.
Joining housing and infrastructure together
A second area of alignment concerns the relationship between housing and infrastructure.
Curia’s Housing and Infrastructure Research Group was established on the premise that housing and infrastructure should be considered together as levers for economic growth and social progress, with a focus not just on developing policy but on its implementation and delivery.
Books published by Curia including Levelling Up 2.0 have long advocated for a more joined up approach towards planning and infrastructure. Changes to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) regime in the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 – including more regular updates to National Policy Statements, streamlined consultation requirements and reforms intended to reduce delays from unmeritorious judicial reviews – move towards a faster, more strategic approach to delivering nationally significant infrastructure.
That approach has subsequently been taken around the country in discussion with Mayors through Curia’s regional Get Britain Growing programme.
In the North West, the programme brought parliamentarians, local authorities, regional leaders and industry together around infrastructure investment, housing, connectivity, skills and sustainable regional growth. In the South East, Curia similarly placed housing, infrastructure and transport alongside the economic opportunities and pressures facing the region.
The Government’s new approach to development around railway stations therefore represents an important step in the same direction.
The principle is straightforward: existing public investment in transport infrastructure should do more to unlock housing, regeneration and private investment around it.
For Curia, the significance extends beyond individual station sites. It is an acknowledgement that decisions about homes, transport, employment and infrastructure cannot sensibly continue to be made in isolation.
The policy institute has spoken to Mayors across the country to understand how their plans interact with the Government’s new guidance.
Removing the barriers between permission and delivery
Curia’s work has also repeatedly focused on the difference between announcing policy and actually delivering it.
The Transforming Communities Commission was established partly in response to what it described as a mismatch between policy and implementation, bringing together local government, service providers, businesses and communities to consider how national ambitions could be translated into practical change.
Within its housing work, the Commission explicitly heard that the National Planning Policy Framework and planning system was under-resourced. It also identified problems caused by poor co-ordination between local authorities and infrastructure providers.
“Together, these reforms will reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, help local planning authorities reach decisions more quickly, and ensure statutory consultees can focus their expertise on the proposals that matter most.” Matthew Pennycook MP
That makes two further elements of the Government’s announcement noteworthy.
First, reform of statutory consultees is an attempt to tackle institutional delays after an application enters the system. Secondly, ministers have acknowledged that implementing the new framework will require continued support for local authority capacity and capability.
The latter must now be delivered.
Greater certainty in national policy will achieve relatively little if planning departments lack the planners, specialist expertise, digital capability or resources required to make timely decisions.
Communities must remain part of the equation
There is one area where Curia believes the next stage requires particular attention.
A more predictable planning system through the National Planning Policy Framework must not become a mechanism for excluding communities from decisions about the places in which they live.
The Transforming Communities report called for communities to be involved throughout the housebuilding supply chain, with local voices heard and communities able to benefit economically from development. Curia and Q5’s regional sprint work proposed stronger community consultation involving local residents and industry stakeholders.
Greater clarity over whether appropriate development should proceed can coexist with a much stronger role for communities in determining how development happens, what infrastructure accompanies it and how local people share in its benefits.
That question becomes even more important as England enters the next stage of devolution.
Devolution is the next frontier
Planning reform through the National Planning Policy Framework is increasingly intersecting with a much bigger transfer of responsibility from Whitehall.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 has placed Strategic Authorities on a statutory footing and provides elected mayors with greater powers across transport, planning, housing and economic regeneration. Mayors can also gain important strategic planning functions, including intervention in significant applications and mayoral development orders.
At the same time, Integrated Settlements are beginning to bring previously separate funding streams together across economic development, transport and local infrastructure, housing and strategic planning, skills, environment and public service reform.
This changes the question facing housing policy. What should mayors do with the powers, funding and responsibilities they are being given?
Given Curia’s work with Mayors across the UK – the insight provided will help to shape the delivery of housing and infrastructure across England.
Bringing experience of Burnham and Whitehall into Curia’s next phase
That work will also draw on new expertise within Curia.
Sian Jarvis CB recently joined Curia as an Advisor, bringing extensive experience from government, and industry. She previously served as Director General of Communications during Andy Burnham’s term as Secretary of State.
Jarvis has recently reflected on the emphasis Burnham placed on collaboration, devolution, prevention and moving decision-making closer to communities – while also recognising the challenge of maintaining national standards and public confidence as greater power is devolved.
“This suite of reforms represent a significant moment of change to national policy; however, there will be more to do in the coming months.” Matthew Pennycook MP
That balance is now relevant far beyond healthcare.
The challenge facing mayors will be to connect housing, transport, economic development, health, skills, and infrastructure into coherent strategies for place – precisely the areas that increasingly sit within the devolution framework.
Timing matters: a conversation ahead of the Budget
The Chancellor has confirmed that the next Budget will take place on 28 October, describing it as a Budget intended to move “money and power out of Westminster” and into communities around the country.
Curia therefore intends to use the months ahead to deepen its work with mayors, Strategic Authorities, local government, infrastructure providers, and businesses.
The institute will continue to invite mayors and regional leaders to a conversation about what should come next: how the new planning framework should operate alongside devolution; what greater fiscal autonomy should mean in practice; how Integrated Settlements can better connect housing and infrastructure; and what Government should prioritise through the Budget and beyond.
The planning reforms announced this week provide an opportunity to recognise progress.
The next challenge is to ensure that clearer national rules, stronger mayoral powers, and increasingly devolved funding combine to deliver something tangible: more homes, better infrastructure, stronger communities and sustainable economic growth in every part of the country.
To find out more about Curia’s Housing and Planning Research Group, please contact team@curiauk.com