CLOA’s response to the National Planning Policy Framework (England) consultation
National and local planning policies can have a significant impact on cultural and leisure infrastructure. Planning can successfully lever new facilities and protect existing infrastructure – but it can also lead to the loss of infrastructure if policies and decisions do not consider the contribution culture and leisure make to developing great places to live, work, and enjoy.
Over the summer, the government consulted on proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The NPPF sets out high level planning policies for England. It provides guidance to local authorities on how to plan for development, including housing, infrastructure, and the environment. When local authorities develop their Local Plans, setting out local planning policies, these must be consistent with the NPPF.
Economic growth is central to the new government’s agenda and to achieve this, it seeks to reform the planning system in England. The proposed changes to the NPPF aim to unlock growth and house building. Given the acute housing shortage in the country, the Chief Cultural and Leisure Officers Association (CLOA) supports this goal. At the same time, we believe it’s essential to ensure that culture, creativity, physical activity, and leisure are embedded in planning policies from the outset so that their positive economic, social, wellbeing, and cohesion benefits can be maximised.
Our response focused on the most relevant consultation questions for our sector.
The cultural and creative industries are one of the fastest-growing sectors of the UK economy. They contribute significantly to our local and national economies, and they play a vital role in enhancing our quality of life. Our response advocated for flexibility in the NPPF to support various sectors, including the creative industries, and related sectors such as advanced manufacturing, digital, low carbon transition, and the night time economy. It emphasised the importance of strategic clusters and supply chains, as well as skills and employment development to maximise local benefits.
We suggested that the NPPF should address the limitations of use class E for cultural and creative industries, as it can lead to their loss to higher-value uses. We proposed reconsidering permitted development rights which were introduced by the previous government to better protect cultural and creative spaces and ensure appropriate planning for this key sector.
We recommended that the NPPF should take a more comprehensive approach to promoting healthy communities and tackling childhood obesity through national planning policy. It suggested that leisure and cultural infrastructure should be prioritised in planning, alongside other social infrastructure. The response emphasised the importance of both physical activity and addressing the wider determinants of health, such as social capital and early years skills. It recommended that the requirement for local planning authorities to carry out robust needs assessments for sport, recreation and open space be extended to include cultural infrastructure.
The consultation documents are available on the government website and you can read our full response here.
Once the refreshed NPPF has been published we will share this through our fortnightly ebulletin. We would also welcome any great examples of using planning policy to ensure that culture, creativity, physical activity, and leisure needs are embedded, new facilities developed or existing infrastructure improved. Please send you case studies to info@cloa.org.uk
Thorsten Dreyer – CLOA Executive Committee Member
