While the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is hitting the headlines for its ambitious housing targets, we caught up with Angela Brooks, a partner and planning expert, to learn why she thinks it also provides significant opportunities in relation to employment land.
The updated NPPF includes extensive guidance on housing targets, which was always going to be expected. However, it’s encouraging to see that it also addresses employment land and commercial development, reflecting Labour’s commitment to economic growth and national prosperity.
The framework emphasises that planning policies should ‘pay particular regard to facilitating development to meet the needs of a modern economy, including by identifying suitable locations for uses such as laboratories, gigafactories, data centres, digital infrastructure, freight and logistics’.
This is the first time that the NPPF has addressed the modern economy, which is incredibly significant. It suggests an increased focus on supporting the digital economy, aligning with the government's expansion goals.
While the NPPF does not set specific targets for employment land like it does for housing, would give certainty that local authorities will need to put forward a specific amount of floorspace for commercial developments, local authorities do have their own individual targets. This is helpful for local authorities in locations such as rural areas which are less likely to have key infrastructure such as road and rail connections to service large-scale employment sites, meaning their targets can reflect this.
Many local authorities now updating their Local Plans and will be doing call for sites exercises to identify available land. Local authorities will need landowners to put forward their sites, so they know what is available. This is an opportune time for landowners to promote their sites for commercial use.
Logistics sites will primarily target major road junctions, while gigafactories and data centres could be located in more diverse areas. The government aims to concentrate new laboratories in the Oxford-Cambridge-London triangle, but other regions can also support life sciences. Given the high energy demands of laboratories and data centres, locations with adequate energy and skills resources are essential.
Sites allocated for development through Local Plans are significantly more likely to achieve planning permission, expediting the development process or making them more appealing to perspective buyers.
Like with housing, employment land may be met with some opposition, especially if land is allocated near to residential development. Large schemes that typically do not provide high levels of employment may meet further opposition, whereas smaller scales employment, creative industries, and laboratories, bringing with them skilled labour, may well be supported.
Housing and employment land are very much aligned, and with the government looking to build an additional 1.5 million homes over the next five years, there are major opportunities for commercial land which can also be taken advantage of. It is now essential that both local authorities and the government carefully consider the relevant needs for each area to ensure that land is allocated for the correct uses, and schemes can be brought forward.
