Changes to National planning policies
The Government published a new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) on 17 August 2026. The new rules started on the same day so they must now be used when making planning decisions.
The new NPPF has two sets of planning policies:
One set helps councils to write new local plans
The other set is used when deciding planning applications
Most of the new rules are similar to the old ones but there are some important changes.
If a local plan or neighbourhood plan policy does not fit with the new national policies it may carry less weight when decisions are made.
We have checked our local plan policies to see how well they match the new NPPF.
We have updated our advice in the Interim Planning Position Policy Statement. This sets out:
Which policies we think are inconsistent or out of date and which ones can still be used
How our policies reflect and are consistent with national policies
How we make positive planning decisions
Our principles for development
Information about a new Local Plan
The Interim Statement was revised in September 2026 to reflect the new NPPF. The original was consulted on between 24 January and 21 February 2025 and adopted by the Cornwall Growth Board on 27 March 2025.
Changes to national housing targets
Government’s new standard housing method was published in December 2024. This is the method that we must use to understand how many new homes should be built each year in Cornwall. We must now plan for 4,421 homes in Cornwall instead of the 2,707 that we were planning for under the current Local Plan.
Where a plan is more than 5 years old, we must be able to show that the plan can meet the new housing requirement of 4,421 homes per year for it to remain up to date.
We have concluded that this is not currently possible and on that basis some of our policies in the Local Plan will be considered out of date for decision making. However, where our policies remain consistent with the new NPPF they can continue to be used for decision making. This is true of the majority of our policies across the Local Plan and neighbourhood plans. Please see our Interim Policy Position Statement for more detail.