The most urgent planning issue is yet another NPPF, published for consultation on 16 December 2025. Our calculation of MSDC’s new mandatory annual housing target is 1,391 dwellings, an increase of 34% from the recent new-build average of 1,035 dwellings.

Our first reading of the proposed NPPF reveals the Government’s intent to significantly speed up the local planning process to implement its stated objective of 1.5 million new dwellings during the current Parliament. This focus on local planning is best summarised by this excerpt from the Minister of State for Housing and Planning, Matthew Pennycook’s 27 November 2025 statement on “Reforming Local Plan-Making.”

“The Government is committed to taking tough action to ensure local authorities have up-to-date local plans in place. While we hope the need will not arise, we have made clear that we are willing to make full use of available intervention powers – including taking over a local authority’s plan making directly – if local plans are not progressed as required.”

The consultation period extends through 10 March 2026. We will be maintaining a watching brief on this exercise and update members when and if we feel our input can make a difference in what is a fraught national process.