Planning Policy Statements

Planning Policy Guidance Notes (PPGs) and their replacements Planning Policy Statements (PPSs) are prepared by the government after public consultation to explain statutory provisions and provide guidance to local authorities and others on planning policy and the operation of the planning system.

They also explain the relationship between planning policies and other policies which have an important bearing on issues of development and land use.

Local authorities must take their contents into account in preparing their development plan documents. The guidance may also be relevant to decisions on individual planning applications and appeals

PPS1 - Delivering Sustainable Development

PPS1 sets out the Government's overarching planning policies on the delivery of sustainable development through the planning system.

PPS3 - Housing

PPS3 underpins the delivery of the Government's strategic housing policy objectives and our goal to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to live in a decent home, which they can afford in a community where they want to live.

PPS4 - Planning for Sustainable Economic Growth

PPS4 sets out the Government's comprehensive policy framework for planning for sustainable economic development in urban and rural areas In particular -

Policy EC6.2 - In rural areas, local planning authorities should:
strictly control economic development in open countryside away from existing a. settlements, or outside areas allocated for development in development plans identify local service centres (which might be a country town, a single large b. village or a group of villages) and locate most new development in or on the edge of existing settlements where employment, housing (including affordable housing), services and other facilities can be provided close together.

Policy EC10 - EC12 outlines how local authorities should determine planning applications

PPS7 - Sustainable development in rural areas

PPS7 sets out the Government's planning policies for rural areas, including country towns and villages and the wider, largely undeveloped countryside up to the fringes of larger urban areas. The economic development section are now in PPS4.

PPS7 outlines that development in rural areas away from towns should be strictly controlled by the local planning authority. Where development is permitted, this should be for the needs of the local community. When considering developing in the countryside, local planning authorities must take into account a number of issues, including conservation of specific features and sites of landscape, wildlife and historic or architectural value, in accordance with statutory designations.

However, it states (Section 25)
"Local landscape designations should only be maintained or, exceptionally, extended where it can be clearly shown that criteria-based planning policies cannot provide the necessary protection. LDDs should state what it is that requires extra protection, and why. When reviewing their local area-wide development plans and LDDs, planning authorities should rigorously consider the justification for retaining existing local landscape designations. They should ensure that such designations are based on a formal and robust assessment of the qualities of the landscape concerned."

It is this section which effectively did away with the Strategic Gap policy, included in the previous MSDC Local Plan.

PPS12 - Local Spatial Planning

Outlines how local authorities should go about their spatial planning. In particular, what should go into their plans, including the Local development Framework and Core Strategy.