On the 1st October 2019, MHCLG issued the new National Design Guide – ‘Planning practice guidance for beautiful, enduring and successful places’.

The new guide builds on the NPPF and makes clear that creating high quality buildings and places is fundamental to what the planning and development process should achieve.

The focus of this guide is on good design in the planning system and is aimed at local authority planning officers, who prepare local planning policy and guidance and assess the quality of planning applications; councillors; applicants and their design teams, and people in local communities.

As well as helping to inform development proposals and their assessment by local planning authorities, it supports paragraph 130 of the NPPF which states that permission should be refused for development of poor design.

The guide applies to all scales of development and new infrastructure.  The new guide is likely to result in the restructuring and redrafting of Local Authority Design Manuals to include ten design characteristics reflecting the Government’s priorities and providing a common overarching framework.

The guide can be downloaded here.

If you have any questions on the implications of the guide for your scheme, please contact:

Jon Tricker
E: [email protected]
T: 07917 436933.