The Return of Strategic Planning

About this episode

This episode discusses the resurgence of strategic planning and the implications of new policies and legislation in the UK.

Strategic planning is back. What do we know? We know that Policy PM1 of the revised draft NPPF anticipates the move towards national coverage of Spatial Development Strategies (SDSs), as promised by the end of the parliamentary term, and clarifies their role, content, and relationship to other tiers of the development plan. SDSs are intended to be high-level documents focused on genuinely strategic, cross-boundary issues, leaving detailed policy to other plans. We know that the Planning & Infrastructure Act, the second SDS building block, gained Royal Assent in December 2025 and sets out the process by which authorities, be they mayoral authorities, combined authorities or combined county authorities, should prepare SDSs. We know that the third SDS building block, the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill (which has reached the committee stage in the House of Lords), will confirm the structures and mechanisms of governance. For much of the country, SDS geography is already settled. More than half of the population is led by mayors, and across at least seven of the major cities, the preparation of SDSs is already underway. For much of the rest of the country…

People in this episode

Host: Samuel Stafford

Topics covered

• strategic planning
• spatial development strategies
• policy
• governance
• local government
• infrastructure

Keywords

• strategic planning
• NPPF
• SDS
• Planning & Infrastructure Act
• governance
• local government
• evidence bases

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: NPPF, Planning & Infrastructure Act, English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill

Places: House of Lords, England

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