What changed
The December 2023 revision followed the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act and gave councils more freedom over housing numbers. The standard method became an advisory starting point, and councils could justify lower figures for local reasons such as Green Belt or the character of an area.
Councils with recently adopted plans were relieved of the need to show a rolling five-year housing land supply. In practice, that made speculative applications on unallocated sites harder to win.
Design and small-scale development
The update supported mansard roof extensions and upward extensions where they suit the area, and placed more emphasis on beauty and design codes. It also asked decision-makers to give weight to the availability of agricultural land for food production.
Short-lived
Most of the housing changes were reversed by the December 2024 NPPF, which made housing targets mandatory again, and national policy was rewritten entirely in the NPPF 2026. Appeal decisions from 2024 should be read with that in mind.
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Sources
This article is general information about planning in England at the date shown. It is not advice on any particular site, and the law and policy may have changed since. Please speak to us before relying on it.