The Committee received a report outlining four national planning consultations that were either currently underway or were about to or had recently closed. The report set out the Council’s proposed or submitted responses to each as follows:

National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF)

The report stated that the Government had published a draft, substantially revised NPPF for consultation which had run between 16 December 2025 and 10 March 2026. Due to the scale of the consultation and the time and resource constraints arising from Local Plan Partial Update hearings, officers had submitted the Council’s consultation response under delegated authority. A copy of the consultation response which had been submitted by officers and which addressed those questions considered to be of relevance to Reading was attached to the report at Appendix 1.

Planning Committee Reform

The report explained thata technical consultation on proposals to reform planning committees had been published in May 2025 and that the Government had since published its response to that consultation, and had commenced a further consultation on proposed draft regulations, provisionally titled ‘The Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026’, together with accompanying guidance. The report summarised the key elements of the proposed Regulations

The consultation on the draft regulations had closed prior to the Committee meeting. Consequently, the Council’s response had been prepared by officers, agreed with the Planning Applications Committee Chair, Vice Chair and the Lead Councillor for Planning and Assets, and had been submitted on 23 April 2026.

An update report was tabled at the meeting that set out the response that the Council had submitted to the consultation.  

Consulting the Secretary of State

The report stated that a consultation was underway on proposals to expand the list of instances whereby Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) were required to consult the Secretary of State in certain circumstances for certain types of planning application. The report set out the key points that officers proposed should be included in the Council’s response to the Secretary of State and sought approval to submit a response based on those points by the 4 May 2026 consultation deadline.

An update report was tabled at the meeting that set out the Council’s proposed response to the consultation for approval for submission. 

Fees for Planning Applications

The report stated that a technical consultation was underway on a National Default Fee Schedule which related to the ability within the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 for LPAs to set their own fees. The report explained that where local fees were not set national default fees applied and that it was these default fees that were the subject of the current consultation. The report summarised the proposals set out within the consultation to increase the application fees for certain types of common applications. The consultation also included guidance around the basis for LPAs to set fees locally.

The report set out the key points that officers proposed should be included in the Council’s response to the consultation and sought approval to submit a response based on those points by the 16 May 2026 consultation deadline.

An update report was tabled at the meeting that set out the Council’s proposed response to the consultation for approval for submission. 

Resolved –

(1)           That the response submitted to the National Planning Policy Framework consultation, as set out in Appendix 1 to the report, be noted;

(2)           That the response submitted to the consultation on Planning Committee Reform, as set out in the Update Report, be noted;

(3)           That the proposed response to the consultation on Consulting the Secretary of State, as set out in the Update Report, be approved;

(4)           That the proposed response to the consultation on Fees for Planning Applications, as set out in the Update Report, be approved.