The West Northamptonshire Council's Planning Policy Committee convened to discuss and approve recommendations on several key planning and development issues, including the adoption of a new local validation list, responses to government consultations on biodiversity net gain and planning committee reforms, and the noting of the Housing Land Availability Report 2025 and ongoing work on the West Northamptonshire Local Plan. Councillor Thomas Manning, Cabinet Member for Planning and Communities, presented the reports.

Local Validation List 2025-2027

The committee approved the draft West Northamptonshire Local Validation List 2025-2027 for public consultation, with minor amendments to sections 20 and 21, replacing 'ideally with' with 'required within' in relation to arboricultural impact assessments and justification statements. The Local Validation List outlines the necessary documentation and information required to validate planning applications submitted to the council. The committee agreed to an eight-week public consultation period and delegated authority to the Head of Planning Policy and Specialist Services to make minor editorial and presentational changes before the consultation begins. A further report summarising consultation responses and proposed amendments will be presented to the committee.

The report stated that the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) requires local planning authorities to publish a list of their information requirements for planning permission applications, kept to the minimum needed to make decisions and reviewed at least every two years. The report noted that West Northamptonshire has many constraints that impact on the type of information needed to accompany a planning application including European nature designations, extensive ecological interests, special landscape areas, over 3,800 listed buildings¹, over 100 scheduled ancient monuments², 117 conservation areas, areas of archaeological interest, areas at risk from flooding, areas of contaminated land and strategic road networks.

Government Consultations

The committee approved the council's responses to two government consultations regarding biodiversity net gain (BNG) and planning committee reforms.

Biodiversity Net Gain

The committee agreed to submit the responses outlined in Appendix A and Appendix B of the report to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA). These responses address consultations on improving the implementation of BNG for minor, medium, and brownfield development, as well as BNG for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs). The Head of Planning Policy and Specialist Services was delegated authority to make minor editorial and presentational changes before submission.

The Environment Act 2021 introduced a mandatory BNG requirement in England for most new developments, mandating a 10% increase in biodiversity.

Planning Committee Reforms

The committee approved the suggested response to the government consultation on proposed changes to the role of planning committees, as detailed in Appendix A of the report. The Assistant Director for Planning was authorised to submit the consultation response, incorporating any agreed amendments. The committee also noted the implications of the proposed changes for the operation of planning committees.

The government's proposals included:

• Establishing a national scheme of delegation, empowering the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government to set a national threshold in law, limit the size of planning committees, and require mandatory training for members.
• A two-tier approach to the national scheme of delegation, with Tier A for applications that must be determined under delegated powers and Tier B for those determined under delegated powers unless referred to the planning committee.

Housing Land Availability Report 2025

The committee noted the contents of the Housing Land Availability Report 2025, which identified a 5.5 year supply of deliverable housing sites as of 1 April 2025. The report is required by the NPPF and sets out the housing requirement and supply of housing. The report noted that the housing requirement was 2,503 dwellings per annum.

West Northamptonshire Local Plan

The committee noted the ongoing work on the West Northamptonshire Local Plan. The report noted that the government, in December 2024, published an update to the NPPF which saw the council's overall housing need increase by just under 400 dwellings per annum. The report stated that the submission of the plan was now expected in the autumn of 2026.