On 14 March 2023, the government opened the public consultation on the case for revising the National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS). The NNNPS document had to be modified to ensure it remains relevant to support the current government’s commitments for appropriate infrastructure development on strategic rail, road, and rail freight interchanges. The CIHT supports the government’s intention to ensure the NNNPS is up to date with the national objectives, particularly, regarding decarbonization and Net Zero.

What is the NNNPS?

The NNNPS is the strategic document of planning policy for major road and rail schemes in England. It was last updated almost ten years ago – in 2014 – and did not include either the decarbonization plan or the subsequent national Net Zero commitments. The new NNNPS is a part of the government’s Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects Action Plan, and the Secretary of State will use the current documents as the main basis for making decisions on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).

As stated in the text of the current NNNPS:

“The NNNPS provides policy and guidance on matters such as good scheme design, transport decarbonisation, avoidance and mitigation of environmental effects and environmental enhancement. In this way, both the National Planning Policy Framework and the NNNPS seek to achieve sustainable development, by ensuring the right infrastructure is delivered in the right place and at the right time to support sustainable growth, and it recognises that different approaches, interventions and measures will be necessary to achieve this. At a very high level, the objective of sustainable development can be summarised as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

What is the CIHT stance on the NNNPS?

CIHT welcomes the publication of the NNNPS draft. CIHT support the objective of the wider National Infrastructure Planning regime to improve clarity and certainty for sponsors of NSIPs and all stakeholders affected by these developments. 

Overall, CIHT think it is crucial to ensure the final version of the NNNPS:

• Strengthens the commitment to move away from Predict & Provide as a guiding principle for network development. The current draft recognises that the Transport Decarbonisation Plan and other documents include a commitment to a take a vision-led, Decide & Provide approach to developing our network. Unfortunately, parts of the draft, notably the section on network performance and meeting user needs rely heavily on DfT’s National Road Traffic Projections and place particular emphasis on a core scenario that projects a 22% increase in traffic between 2025 and 2060.
• Responds to the Climate Change Committee’s advice that government needs to act on its acknowledgement of the need to limit traffic growth. CIHT notes that this contrasts negatively with the approach taken by other UK nations. The discussion of the draft Appraisal for Sustainability of the NNNPS also reinforces our concern that the NNNPS will be interpreted as prioritising the accommodation of projected traffic growth.

CIHT believe that these issues highlight the wider problems caused by the absence of a National Transport Strategy for England. In the absence of a clear vision and prioritised, high-level objectives for the transport system, policy can very easily become disjointed, generating additional complexity and uncertainty for all stakeholders. You can read the CIHT’s statement about the need for the National Transport Strategy here.

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Help & Support

For all policy and technical enquiries regarding the response please email technical@ciht.org.uk

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