NPPF August 2026: Reflections on transport and mobility planning

The way we plan for movement continues to change. The UK government’s August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) [1] further embeds the move away from traffic-focused ‘predict & provide’ towards a clear sequence:

Vision → accessibility and safety → movement strategy → sustainable travel infrastructure → assessment → mitigation → delivery.

This matters for developments of all types and scales. Transport inputs are no longer simply part of the evidence prepared to test a development proposal. Increasingly, transport helps to shape the proposition from the outset.

Setting the strategy

Movement strategies help answer some fundamental questions: whether a site is genuinely sustainable, what scale and form of development it can support, what infrastructure is needed, and how that infrastructure can realistically be delivered. The implications are relevant to all developments, particularly:

• Strategic sites and new settlements – where transport infrastructure, its timing, and its deliverability are more closely connected to the wider development strategy in a flexible manner.
• Station-led development – where national policy now creates a clearer relationship between connectivity, walking distance, and density.
• Site promotion and plan-making – where a vision-led approach, alongside a greater focus on accessibility and connectivity, takes on a more explicit role in the selection and assessment of development locations.
• Masterplanning – where movement, density, public transport catchments, walking, wheeling, cycling, and safety need to be integrated into the design vision.
• Planning applications – where Transport Assessments, Transport Statements, and Travel Plans are expected to do more than forecast impacts (now including the construction phase too), demonstrating how the development's transport vision connects with the wider area, and how outcomes will be delivered, monitored, and managed over time.

Providing the right evidence

Importantly, vision-led planning does not mean less technical evidence. It means asking different questions from the outset and providing robust evidence to inform the strategy:

• What makes this site genuinely accessible?
• How should movement shape the masterplan?
• What infrastructure is needed and when can it realistically be delivered?
• How can planned improvements help create or enhance a sustainable location?
• How do we respond to uncertainty and manage outcomes over time?

These are questions for the first conversation about a site – before key assumptions about its scale, form, and movement patterns become fixed. The answers should then flow through the masterplan, movement strategy, infrastructure strategy and, ultimately, the supporting transport evidence.

The SLR approach

At SLR, this is closely aligned with the way we approach vision-led planning. We bring transport, land use, infrastructure, and place-making together early, to influence strategy and unlock opportunities while retaining the technical rigour needed to test proposals, demonstrate policy compliance, and support delivery. That means combining vision-led techniques and approaches, including our data-driven FLINT vision-led planning tool, [2] with wider quantitative and qualitative evidence needed to understand accessibility, test options, and develop robust, deliverable strategies.

The policy framework may have changed, but the bigger opportunity is to rethink when transport planning begins, what it informs, and the role it can play in creating successful places. If you're considering what the NPPF 2026 changes could mean for a strategic site, site promotion, a station-led opportunity, or a live or emerging planning application, we'd love to have a conversation.