"The NPPF makes explicit what was always implicit: that Councils' policies must encourage brownfield sites to be brought back into use," said communities minister Greg Clark.
The controversial NPPF (65-page/870KB PDF) was published by the Government yesterday and has immediate effect, although the Government has introduced some transitional provision to enable local authorities to update their local plans in line with the new framework.
A "core land-use principle" is that planners should encourage the effective use of land, which is one of the core planning principles that should underpin the plan-making and decision-taking process, the NPPF said.
This can be done by "reusing land that has been previously developed (brownfield land), provided that it is not of high environmental value", the Government said.
The planning reforms have three fundamental objectives: to put power in the hands of communities; to better support growth, and to ensure that countryside, towns and cities are bequeathed to the next generation in a better condition than they are now, the NPPF said.
A key principle of the new planning regime is "preserving and enhancing" the natural environment, which can be done by re-using brownfield land.
As part of the Government's ambition to remove top-down targets, councils will continue to be responsible for identifying brownfield land.
"Local planning authorities may continue to consider the case for setting a locally appropriate target for the use of brownfield land," the NPPF said.
The word "brownfield" was not included in the draft NPPF, which aggrieved environmental campaigners throughout the consultation process.
"[BPF] fully support the reinstatement of some form of brownfield first concept [...] it is entirely morally right that you should seek to use land that has been previously used," said the British Property Federation to the Environmental Appeals Committee.
The draft Policy said that, where practical and consistent with other objectives, "allocations of land for development should prefer land of lesser environmental value".
