Episode 212 - New Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance

This week we will be talking about the new Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance, published for consultation by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in January 2026. This episode content meets PC1 - Professionalism & PC3 - Legal Framework & Processes of the Part 3 Criteria.

Resources from today's episode:

Website:

• Draft Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance (January 2026): https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696a5c77e13af2b11d3b04a6/Design_and_placemaking_planning_practice_guidance_-_draft_for_consultation.pdf
• MHCLG Consultation Page: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/design-and-placemaking-planning-practice-guidance
• RIBA: What architects can learn from the Design and Placemaking PPG: https://www.riba.org/work/insights-and-resources/professional-features/what-architects-learn-from-the-design-and-placemaking-planning-practice-guidance/

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Transcript

Episode 212:

Hello and Welcome to the Part3 with me podcast. 

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I am your host Maria Skoutari and this week we will be talking about the new Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance, published for consultation by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in January 2026. Todays’ episode meets PC1 & PC3 of the Part 3 Criteria.

So today we will focus on four key themes: 

• What this new Guidance is
• Who its for
• How its structured
• And what it means for architects and the profession

So let’s dive into the first key theme of today’s episode. What is the Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance, and why does it matter:

At the start of 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government launched a consultation on a new, consolidated piece of guidance called the Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance, often referred to as the Design and Placemaking PPG. The consultation ran from 21st of January to 10th of March 2026, and it represents one of the most significant shifts in how design quality is addressed within the English planning system in recent years, forming part of what the government has described as the biggest planning rewrite in a decade.

What makes this guidance particularly noteworthy for architects is what it replaces. It merges four existing documents:

• The National Design Guide, 
• The Design Process and Tools Planning Practice Guidance, 
• And both Parts 1 and 2 of the National Model Design Code. 

Have been consolidated into a single, streamlined 161-page resource. The intention behind that consolidation is practical, namely to speed up planning decisions and reduce the burden on both applicants and local planning authorities who previously had to cross-reference multiple overlapping documents. 

The guidance is intended to enhance placemaking within the planning system and support the application of policies set out in the revised National Planning Policy Framework, which confirms that development proposals that are not well-designed should be refused. For architects, that is a significant statement. Design quality is not a discretionary consideration, it is a policy requirement with real consequences at the decision-making stage. It also outlines a framework for creating sustainable development by focusing on key themes such as liveability, climate resilience, and the integration of nature.

The Housing and Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook summed up the ambition well when he said: "Exemplary development should be the norm not the exception so that more communities feel the benefits of new development and welcome it."

Now lets look at who the guidance is for:

Before diving into the guidances content, it is worth being clear about who the guidance is aimed at. 

The document states that it is primarily intended for:

• Local authority planning officers who prepare strategic or local planning policy and assess planning applications
• Councillors and other decision-makers who make planning decisions
• Statutory consultees required to be consulted on relevant development proposals
• Applicants and their design teams, which is where architects come in, who prepare planning applications
• People in local communities and their representatives, including those preparing neighbourhood plans

So while this is a planning document, architects are explicitly included as a core audience. Understanding how planners will interpret and apply this guidance is therefore central to preparing competent design and access statements, developing robust design concepts, and navigating planning conversations effectively.

So now lets dive into the guidance itself and how it’s structured:

The guidance is organised into three parts:

• Part 1 sets out seven features of well-designed places, each with design and placemaking outcomes and corresponding design principles. 
• Part 2 explains how design quality can be integrated throughout the plan-making process, and provides guidance on design tools and processes within the planning system, including masterplans, local design codes and design guidance. 
• And Part 3 focuses specifically on setting effective design codes. It explains how local design codes can set technical requirements for different design issues and provides guidance on applying design codes at different scales and in different contexts. 

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has also indicated its intention to publish a series of Model Design Codes alongside this guidance. These will be template codes for common development types, starting with house-builder-led sites and small sites, which local planning authorities can apply or adapt to their own context. The idea is to build up, over time, a catalogue of reusable design codes so that local authorities are not starting from scratch every time.

Reverting back to, Part 1: The Seven Features of Well-Designed Places, lets look at it more closely:

The heart of the guidance is the seven features of well-designed places. These are: 

• Liveability — healthy, mixed and integrated communities, "designed for all stages of life", featuring proximity to amenities and flexible layouts to accommodate changing circumstances
• Climate — mitigating and adapting to change, through features like green roofs, solar panels, and EV charging stations to mitigate overheating and flood risks
• Nature — enhanced and optimised
• Movement — accessible and easy to move around
• Built Form — a compact and connected pattern of development
• Public Space — safe, social and inclusive
• Identity — attractive and distinctive

The guidance is explicit that in a well-designed place, these seven features do not operate independently. They come together through an integrated design process, each supporting the others, to create a distinct and cohesive place rooted in a thorough understanding of its context. Good design considers how a development proposal contributes to all seven features regardless of scale. From a small infill scheme or the reuse of an existing building, all the way up to a new settlement or large-scale infrastructure.

So let’s go through each of the seven features in turn:

• Liveability is described as the extent to which a place is suitable for living in, and the guidance frames it as a key determinant of people's quality of life. Liveable places are enjoyable to spend time in, they encourage healthy, mixed, vibrant and integrated communities, they reduce isolation, and they provide access to jobs, local services and physical activity for all. In practical terms, the guidance asks design teams to think carefully about an effective use of land, a mix of uses, a mix of home tenures, types and sizes, and how buildings relate well to their surrounding spaces. One principle that stands out is that different housing tenures should be integrated and designed to the same standards, what the guidance calls tenure neutral design, so that no tenure is disadvantaged in terms of quality. Consistent design quality across tenures is explicitly linked to supporting social integration. For architects, that has real implications for how you detail and specify across a mixed-tenure scheme.
• Now moving on to the second feature. Climate, which is framed around three responses: 
• mitigation, which is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions and minimising operational and embodied energy; 
• adaptation, which involves modifying buildings and infrastructure to cope with current and anticipated climate change impacts; 
• and resilience, which means building capacity to endure, adapt and recover from extreme weather events. 

A key design tool introduced here is the energy hierarchy, which prioritises: 

• First, reducing the need for energy through passive measures such as building form and fabric; 
• Second, using energy efficient materials and systems; 
• Third, maximising renewable energy contributions; 
• And fourth, making use of low carbon energy infrastructure such as heat networks. 

The guidance also emphasises whole life carbon assessment and circular economy principles as ways to reduce both operational and embodied carbon.

1. Next, moving onto the thrid feature. Nature, which asks that new development enhances the natural environment rather than simply mitigating its impact on it. This includes green and blue infrastructure, biodiversity net gain, sustainable drainage, and the integration of ecological networks. The guidance captured public imagination during the consultation period partly because of its references to hedgehog highways and swift bricks. Which are features that have been reported in the national press as symbolic of a shift in how housing developments are expected to engage with the natural world.
2. Then looking at the fourth feature, movement, this feature is about designing places that are accessible and easy to move around, with a strong emphasis on active travel like walking, wheeling and cycling as the primary modes of movement in well-designed neighbourhoods. The guidance asks that layouts prioritise pedestrian and cyclist routes, minimise people's exposure to air pollution, and ensure that services and facilities are genuinely accessible to all, including people with physical disabilities and people who are neurodivergent.
3. Then under the fifth feature, it focuses on Built Form. Looking at a compact and connected pattern of development. The guidance advocates for higher densities particularly near public transport and for layouts that create lively, active places that feel like centres or destinations. Compact, mixed-use development is presented not as a style preference but as a practical way of reducing travel demand and supporting the viability of local shops and services. The guidance is careful to note, however, that well-designed places do not need to copy their surroundings in every way. New development can introduce elements that reflect how we live today, including increased densities and new sustainable features, without simply replicating the existing context.
4. Next, under the sixth feature, Public Space. This feature is described in the guidance as needing to be safe, social and inclusive. Well-designed public space promotes social interaction, reduces loneliness, and is accessible to people of all ages and abilities. The guidance pays particular attention to how private amenity spaces, shared amenity spaces and public realm interact, and to the importance of ensuring that spaces are overlooked and directly accessible rather than left as residual areas between buildings.
5. And lastly, the seventh an final feature focuses on Identity. Which asks that new places are attractive and distinctive, fostering a sense of belonging. The guidance asks design teams to understand the local context by valuing heritage, history and culture, and to let that understanding inform architectural details and materials choices. Crucially, it does not require that new development simply copies its surroundings. Where appropriate, particularly in larger schemes such as new settlements, new development can introduce innovative character. The key is that there is a clearly expressed design concept, what the guidance describes as a design story, that explains how the design has evolved and how it shapes the layout, form, appearance and details of the proposed development. This design story typically appears in the design and access statement submitted with a planning application.

So those are the seven key features under the first part of the guidance, it then moves on to expand on Community Participation and Context:

Running through the guidance as a cross-cutting theme is the importance of understanding context and involving communities meaningfully in the design process. The guidance states that involving diverse community members, including underrepresented groups, through co-design, design workshops and other participatory methods ensures that new development responds to local community needs. Interestingly, the guidance also highlights Post Occupancy Evaluation as a way of understanding what has worked from the design process and improving standards for future development. That is a relatively progressive inclusion for planning practice guidance, and how modelling and post-occupancy evaluation can inform design.

Now moving on to the second part of the guidance which focuses on Design Quality in the Planning Process:

Part 2 of the guidance is particularly relevant for architects who are regularly involved in the pre-application and planning application stages of projects. It explains that design quality should be integrated throughout the plan-making process, not bolted on at the end. It also provides guidance on design tools, including masterplans, design codes, and design guidance, and explains how design can be effectively assessed in planning decisions.

One of the important signals in this part of the guidance is that planning applications should demonstrate an understanding of the local context through written material, drawings and a design and access statement, and that this understanding should address all seven features of well-designed places. For architects preparing design and access statements, that is effectively a checklist. If your statement cannot speak to how the design addresses liveability, climate, nature, movement, built form, public space and identity, it is likely to be incomplete in the eyes of the local planning authority.

The guidance also notes that the relative importance of each feature may vary depending on locally identified priorities, the strategic priorities of the local authority, the needs of specific user groups, the scale of the proposal, and the site and its location. That means there is no single formula, good design requires genuine contextual judgment, and the design process should begin with an honest appraisal of which features are most critical for a given project.

And then lastly, the third part 3 of the guidance focuses on Design Codes:

Part 3 of the guidance addresses the technical setting of design codes, which local planning authorities can use to set requirements for different design issues. The government's development of a catalogue of Model Design Codes is intended to save local authorities the time and resource of creating codes from scratch for common development types. For architects, understanding how design codes operate and how they interact with the wider seven-feature framework is increasingly important, particularly as the planning system moves toward a more rules-based approach to design quality.

The RIBA has been clear in its consultation response that design codes and tools are valuable, but they cannot compensate for under-resourced planning departments. Architects therefore have a role not just in complying with design codes but in advocating for the broader conditions such as resourcing, expertise and time that make good placemaking possible.

So what does the introduction of the Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance, mean for architects in practice:

The consolidation of four documents into one coherent framework is broadly good news for the profession. It creates a clearer and more navigable set of expectations, and it gives design teams a shared vocabulary, the seven features, that can structure conversations with planners, clients and communities alike.

From a Part 3 perspective, the guidance connects to a wide range of competency outcomes. It requires architects to demonstrate knowledge of the regulatory and policy context of their projects, to read and apply design policies in plan-making and decision-making, and to prepare design and access statements that genuinely address design quality rather than simply describing what a building looks like. It also reinforces the importance of early engagement with communities, with local planning authorities, and with the site and its context as a core professional responsibility, not an optional extra. 

So as mentioned this guidance has just been open to consultation which ended on 10th of March this year. Once further updates have been released on the next steps relating to the guidance I will follow up with an update episode. 

Let’s sum what we ran through today:

• The Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance, published for consultation in January 2026, consolidates four existing guidance documents. The National Design Guide, the Design Process and Tools PPG, and both Parts of the National Model Design Code into a single 161-page resource, intended to speed up planning decisions and create a more consistent approach to design quality across England.
• The guidance is built around seven integrated features of well-designed places: liveability, climate, nature, movement, built form, public space and identity. Design teams are expected to address all seven in planning applications, with the relative weighting varying by project, site and context. In a well-designed place, these features work together, they are not independent checkboxes.
• For climate, the energy hierarchy is the key design tool, working through passive energy reduction first, then energy efficiency, then renewable energy, and finally low carbon infrastructure such as heat networks. Embodied carbon and whole life carbon assessment are also explicitly expected considerations.
• Tenure neutral design, social inclusion across all ages and abilities, compact and connected development near public transport, and a clearly expressed design concept communicated through the design and access statement are all central to what the guidance expects of development proposals.
• For architects, this guidance has direct professional implications: it shapes how planning applications must be prepared, how design quality will be assessed at decision-making stage, and how architects must be able to articulate the relationship between their design decisions and the seven features of well-designed places.
• Finally, the government intends to develop Model Design Codes alongside this guidance over time, creating a growing catalogue of template codes for common development types that local authorities can apply or adapt to their local context reducing the burden of creating codes from scratch and supporting more consistent design quality across England.

If you want to see or read the Draft Guidance I provided a link to it in the episode notes.