National Planning Framework

Background

The Scottish Government has published its fourth National Planning Framework (NPF4). It sets out how places and environments will be planned and designed in the years to come.

Read the NPF4 

What the Parliament is doing

Parliament had 120 days to report on the framework. The Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee undertook joint scrutiny of the framework. This allowed several committees to share their knowledge of:

• planning
• climate change
• rural affairs
• the economy
• health
• equalities

The Committee wrote to the following committees proposing collaborative scrutiny:

• Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
• Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee
• Economy and Fair Work Committee
• Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

The Committee wrote to the following committees informing them of its inquiry:

• Social Justice and Social Security Committee
• Public Audit Committee
• Finance and Public Administration Committee

The final version of NPF4 was laid in Autumn 2022. The Scottish Government provided Parliament six weeks to scrutinise it. The Committee has taken evidence on the 22 and the 29 November 2022 on the final version of NP4 to inform Parliament’s consideration of it. The Committee has also agreed to hold annual sessions on NPF4 to assess its impact.

Oral evidence

The Committee held five evidence sessions at the following meetings; 

• Tuesday, 18 January 2022
• Tuesday, 25 January 2022
• Tuesday, 1 February 2022 
• Tuesday, 8 February 2022 
• Tuesday, 22 February 2022
• Tuesday, 22 November 2022
• Tuesday, 29 November 2022

Report

The Committee published its report on NPF4 on the 29 March 2022. You can read the report here.

The Committee published its Report on the Revised Draft National Planning Framework 4 on 21 December 2022. You can read the report here.

Your views

The Committee launched a consultation to hear your views on these plans.

They wanted to know:

• what does your ideal home look like and what surrounds it?
• how can we design our environments to address climate change?
• how do you use space to stay healthy and well?
• how can planning encourage people to live in rural areas?
• how can land and spaces best promote equality?
• how can we use land and spaces to meet biodiversity targets?
• They want to know your priorities for your environment and whether the NPF4 will deliver this.

The deadline was Monday 10 January 2022.

Meetings

The Committee considered its approach to the inquiry at its meetings on 2 November 2021 and 16 November 2021.