Under policies S5 and GB7, one of these reforms involved establishing in principle support – a default yes – for suitable proposals that develop land around rail stations within existing settlements, and around well-connected train stations outside settlements. This includes stations for trains, light rapid transit/trams and the London Underground and also includes land within the Green Belt.

The first requirement for the policy to be engaged is that the land must be within a reasonable walking distance of the station. The exact definition of ‘reasonable walking distance’ has not been specified in the draft. However, in parliamentary debate on 16 December discussing the draft NPPF, the housing minister Matthew Pennycook said a reasonable walking distance was about 800m, but subject to consultation. There is likely to be some flex, for example depending on the quality of the pedestrian and cycle routes to the station. Evidence from the National Travel Survey suggests people are willing to walk up to 1,600m to a train station.

Further policy requirements vary depending on whether the station is located inside or outside a settlement boundary. For stations outside existing settlements, the station must be well-connected for the policy to apply, defined as:

• located within the top 60 Travel to Work Areas (TTWA) which are located partially or fully within England, by Gross Value Added (GVA)
• with a service frequency (in the normal weekday timetable) of four trains or trams per hour overall, or two trains per hour in any one direction

New development at these stations is required to have a density of at least 50 dwellings per hectare (dph). Additionally, proposals on green belt land must meet the ‘Golden Rules’ for green belt release. 

Identifying the land

This preliminary analysis focuses on the development potential of land within 800m of stations in the top 60 TTWAs in England, which totals 323,453 hectares. For land outside settlement boundaries, stations would also be required to meet the ‘well-connected’ criteria, which would need to be judged on a per station and per proposal basis.

70% of land within 800m of stations in the top 60 TTWAs in England is in an existing built-up area. This leaves 30% or approximately 96,300 hectares as greenfield land. However, after taking into account the constraints of National Landscapes, National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Areas, ancient woodland and Flood Zones 2 and 3, the proportion of the most developable greenfield land falls to 62,200 hectares – 19% of the total. Just over half of this land is not green belt land (approximately 33,100 hectares) and so presents the greatest development opportunity. In theory, this land could accommodate hundreds of thousands of new homes (and other commercial development). 

Looking at just the 62,200 hectares of land that is unconstrained greenfield or Green Belt, a significant 60% is located in local planning authorities that have less than five years of housing land supply, either published in their last statement or found at an appeal. In these areas, the new policy could unlock opportunities to bring forward sites outside of the Local Plan process over the next 3-5 years, and make a considerable contribution to meeting the shortfall in housing supply.

Density requirements

Assuming the policy remains unchanged from the draft, proposals in these locations would have to have at least 40dph, rising to 50dph in locations that are considered well-connected.  

Of the 1,689 stations we identified in the top 60 TTWAs only 208 (13%) are in areas where the density of existing residential development is above the 40 dph threshold. As would be expected, these stations also present a less obvious development opportunity, with most of the land within an 800m buffer already developed, whether as residential or for other uses.

The greatest opportunity in terms of unconstrained, undeveloped land is around stations where the average residential density is between 10 and 30 dph. Typically in more rural areas, schemes coming forward under policy L3 in these locations will potentially diverge significantly from local context, where existing housing densities are low. Policy DP3 1.(a) (Principles for well-designed places) confirms that optimising densities should not be precluded by character, rather than the previous, more cautious approach which has slowly been strengthened since the NPPF 2023.

This opens up the possibility of delivering much higher housing volumes than was possible under previous iterations of the NPPF, but also creates challenges for integrating new development with the existing settlements. Design quality and sensitive masterplanning will be crucial to ensure that this new opportunity results in the creation of successful new communities around transport hubs. 

Further information

Contact Evie Sargeant or Andrew Raven