Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance Consultation: What It Means for the Planning System

The Government has launched a consultation on its draft Design and Placemaking Planning Practice Guidance, inviting views on a new consolidated approach to national design guidance. Published on 21 January 2026, the consultation runs until 10 March 2026 and seeks feedback on whether the proposed guidance is clear, accessible and practical for those involved in planning and development.

The draft guidance brings together four existing documents into a single resource. These include the National Design Guide, the Design Process and Tools Planning Practice Guidance, and Parts 1 and 2 of the National Model Design Code. The aim is to simplify the design framework, reduce duplication and make it easier for local authorities, developers and practitioners to apply national design principles consistently.

At its core, the guidance reinforces the Government’s ambition to secure well designed places that are healthy, resilient, green, beautiful, enduring and successful. It is structured in three parts. The first sets out the seven characteristics of well designed places. The second explains how design quality should be embedded throughout plan making and decision taking. The third provides practical advice on preparing and using local design codes that respond to local character and context.

The consultation is closely linked to the wider review of the National Planning Policy Framework. However, respondents are asked to focus specifically on the usability and presentation of the planning practice guidance, rather than the underlying policy direction. Comments on national design policy itself should be made through the NPPF consultation.

This consultation is an important opportunity for practitioners to influence how design guidance is structured and applied in practice. The final guidance will play a key role in shaping design expectations, local design coding and decision making across the planning system.

Consultation link:https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/design-and-placemaking-planning-practice-guidance

The final guidance will play a key role in shaping design expectations, local design coding and decision making across the planning system