Scottish Government’s Fourth National Planning Framework

Overview

At its meeting on 17 December, the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee agreed to review the progress of the fourth National Planning Framework in the second year since publication.

Following the Committee's first annual review of NPF4, the Committee raised concerns about local authority capacity to deliver the priorities set out in the spatial strategy and key policy goals. Since then, the Scottish Government has published a summary of responses to the consultation on “Investing in Planning – A consultation on resourcing Scotland’s planning system”. 

The Committee wrote to the Scottish Government on the following themes arising from their review last year— 

• The outcome of the Scottish Government’s consultation on Investing in Planning – A consultation on resourcing Scotland’s planning system; 
• The time taken to process planning applications, particularly the role of statutory consultees; 
• The work of the National Planning Improvement Champion; 
• How NPF4 can be used to support the response to the housing emergency; 
• How the prominence of NPF4’s commitment to addressing the climate and nature emergencies is manifesting in individual planning decisions and the impact of these key pillars of the framework overall; 
• The stringency of the application of individual policies within NPF4 (key examples of Policy 5 on soils and Policy 22 on flooding were discussed); and 
• Capacity building within communities to allow them to contribute to local plan plans and participate in the planning system in general. 

The Committee is also interested in the newly announced planning housing hub and gender sensitive planning. 

Ahead of their second annual progress review, the Committee is seeking your views on the implementation of NPF4 and the progress made on this in the last year. Your views on the themes listed would be most welcome, as well as additional issues you believe should be considered.  

You are invited to write to the Committee using the link below to offer your views.

Please contact the clerks to the Committee if you wish to respond in another way.

How to submit your views

Please submit your views using the online submission form, linked to below. 

The call for views closes on 7 March 2025.