Planning and Architecture

NPF4 early engagement – Feb 2020

February 3, 2020 by No Comments | Category Uncategorized

NPF4 – Getting Involved

One month into 2020 and the substantial task of producing Scotland’s fourth National Planning Framework is well in motion and picking up pace. Now it’s time for you to join in!

NPF4 is going to have a powerful influence on how we shape the development of Scotland between now and 2050. It will be a long-term development plan for Scotland, setting out where development and infrastructure will be needed to support sustainable and inclusive growth, while facing up to some domestic and global challenges. This is to be Scotland’s fourth National Planning Framework, and we need people from across sectors and from across Scotland to help us design it.

A few weeks ago, we told you of our Programme for Engagement – a package of options and opportunities for everyone to get involved; to speak up about your aspirations for Scotland to 2050 and to feed into what NPF4 can do to get us there. We have also launched a Call for Ideas where we’re asking you to tell us about your priorities for NPF4 by the end of March, so that we can hear from you in good time before we prepare our draft.

Last week, we published a suite of resources, information and opportunities that will help you get involved:

NPF4 Scotplan 2050 Roadshow

The NPF4 team is setting off around Scotland, meeting people in a mix of city centre venues and rural village halls. The events include facilitated workshops to talk over key issues of interest with other stakeholders, and separate options to drop in and meet the team. We hope you can get along to see us.

Self-Hosted Events – Resource Pack

You may wish to host your own NPF4 event and feed the outcomes back to us? To help you do that, we’ve published some resources that you are welcome to use to get the discussion going.

  • Guide – how to do an NPF4 workshop
  • Self-read presentation – NPF4 overview
  • Ideas postcard to Scotland 2050
  • Doodle map of Scotland – draw your ideas

Community Fund

We’ve established this fund to provide small grants that can support and enable communities to come together to host their own NPF4 events and contribute to the Call for Ideas. We’ve produced information on eligibility and an application form for funding. Closing date for applications is 29 February 2020.

National Developments

The Planning Act allows the Scottish Ministers to identify national developments to include in NPF4. This could include single, large-scale projects or several smaller scale developments combined. Once designated, the question of whether a national development is needed does not have to be debated in later consenting processes. We’ve provided a resource that invites people to suggest projects that could have this national development status.

Scottish Planning Policy Information Notes

NPF4 will incorporate Scottish Planning Policy, and the new Planning Act will give it an enhanced status as part of the statutory development plan. These notes cover the policy topics and highlight some issues that we need to think about in preparing NPF4, including how national planning policy may need to change for the future.

Rural Research Report

We commissioned research to explore current challenges in planning and future opportunities for rural land use, essentially to inform thinking in the preparation of NPF4. The research report has now been published.

2050 Think Pieces

We asked stakeholders with different interests and perspectives in planning to produce think piece contributions that can stimulate discussion about Scotland 2050. We’ve started to publish these and will continue to do that each weekday, two or three at a time, until they’re all out there.

Impact Assessments – The development of NPF4 will be supported by a number of statutory and non-statutory impact assessments. We have already published an easy read guide, with further information to be published in due course.

All of this is available now at our new website transformingplanning.scot. Please do take some time to look through the site, keep up-to-date, and crucially get involved and tell us about what matters to you.


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