By Matthew Sunman, Associate Planner at Pegasus Group.
The Government’s revised National Planning Policy Framework fortifies the important role minerals play in delivering housing, energy, and other infrastructure that supports economic growth. While minerals planning might not attract the same media buzz as housing or commercial development, the new NPPF shows strong recognition that national growth ambitions cannot happen without a reliable supply of construction materials and other strategically important minerals.
There are several important policy shifts in the updated framework that will influence both plan-making and development decisions in the years ahead for developers, mineral operators, landowners, and local authorities.
The NPPF recognises minerals as ‘essential’ to the UK’s economic growth
Rather than brush minerals aside as a standalone sector, the NPPF 2026 takes a more integrated approach to minerals. The framework explicitly labels minerals-related development as ‘essential,’ linking it to the delivery of infrastructure, buildings, green energy projects, and by extension, the wider economy.
Given the Government’s ambitions to accelerate delivery of housing and Critical National Infrastructure, as well as support the transition to net zero, this is a much-needed change. All of these objectives depend on a steady and secure supply of industrial minerals and specialist resources.
For mineral planning authorities, this emphasis will likely bolster the weight and significance assigned to safeguarding resources and maintaining a sufficient pipeline of future mineral extraction sites.
Emphasis is now given to maintaining a sufficient and timely supply of minerals
One of the most noteworthy changes is that plan-making policy now requires development plans to provide a ‘sufficient and timely’ supply of minerals.
While the addition of ‘timely’ is subtle, it’s important language for ensuring that that supply is responsive to market demand. Identifying future mineral resources during the planning process is one thing, but making sure those resources can come forward when needed is just as important. Any delays in bringing sites into production can have serious consequences for meeting any of the Government’s critical infrastructure and housing goals.
For applicants, we expect that this change will raise the likelihood of achieving planning consent for projects that include strategically important mineral resources, as long as they minimise environmental impacts.
Greater weight has been given to Critical and Growth minerals
The revised framework also places greater emphasis on the benefits of mineral extraction and processing, which now carry ‘substantial weight.’
To support this further, the NPPF has explicitly carved out a new category of ‘critical and growth minerals.’ This concerns resources that are becoming more and more important to sectors like renewable energy, battery technologies, advanced manufacturing, and wider industrial supply chains.
The introduction of this new category, alongside the ‘substantial weight’ given to benefits, should help tip the balance in favour of planning approval for mineral schemes when balancing economic benefits against potential environmental impacts. Compared to previous versions of the NPPF, there is now far stronger support for these minerals than previously seen in UK national policy.
Stronger restrictions have been placed on fossil fuels and peat
While policy support for minerals is much stronger now, the new NPPF takes care to distinguish between minerals that support a high-growth, net-zero future and those that cause higher carbon emissions.
The framework is explicit in limiting opportunities for new coal, onshore oil and gas, as well as peat extraction. The planning environment for these resources is far stricter: development plans must not identify new oil and gas sites outside licensed areas, nor any sites for coal or peat extraction. Applications for peat extraction must be refuse, and new coal or onshore oil and gas proposals face similar restrictions (non-approval presumptions, absent narrow exemptions).
This marks a much higher policy hurdle for resources that could be considered environmentally unfriendly than the UK has seen historically. The shift aligns well the Government’s objectives on climate change and environmental protection.
The NPPF takes furthers steps to speed up the decision-making process for mineral developments
The NPPF also introduces a National Scheme of Delegations in an attempt to accelerate planning decisions.
This could prove useful for speeding up developments in the minerals sector – especially for Section 73 applications, which are commonly used to vary conditions attached to existing mineral permissions. Such applications can facilitate changes to working programmes, restoration schemes, operating hours, extraction phasing, or other operational requirements without the need for an entirely new planning permission.
Under the National Scheme of Delegations, there is now an expectation that more routine applications, including many Section 73 submissions, could be pushed towards more delegated powers (e.g. officer delegation gateways) rather than automatically referred to planning committees (as a County Matter development).
In theory, this should help give all stakeholders involved greater confidence in the outcome of mineral planning applications, in addition to shorter determination periods. However, any applications that generate substantial local interest or which involve significant environmental impact will likely still attract scrutiny from communities.
Conclusion
The direction of travel is then clear: the Government is taking mineral planning, and by extension, this bodes well for the UK’s prospects of delivering on its ambitions for housing and infrastructure. The outstanding question, of course, is how this new policy-backed support for mineral developments will filter down to the local level. It remains to be seen how national reforms will be interpreted and implemented by individual councils.
Understanding the new requirements and the new weight given to minerals via policy will be hugely important for delivering new schemes forward. As ever, early engagement with planning authorities and stakeholders can make or break whether a scheme lives or dies. It is also imperative to ensuring key complaints and considerations can be addressed early in the planning process.
Our minerals and planning specialists at Pegasus Group continue to advise clients across the UK on mineral extraction proposals, mineral safeguarding issues, site promotion and planning strategy. If you would like to discuss how these policy changes may affect your development interests, please contact our team.
If you would like to discuss how these changes affect your project, please get in touch.
