CAIRNGORMS NATION­AL PARK AUTHOR­ITY Plan­ning Com­mit­tee Agenda Item 5 Appendix | 10/03/2023 AGENDA ITEM 5 APPENDIX I NATION­AL PLAN­NING FRAME­WORK 4

£ Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment Riaghaltas na h‑Alba

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 01 Con­tents 02 Min­is­teri­al Fore­word 03 Part 1 — A Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy for Scot­land 2045 Spa­tial Prin­ciples Sus­tain­able Places Live­able Places Pro­duct­ive Places Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy Map Nation­al Devel­op­ments Map Region­al Spa­tial Pri­or­it­ies: North and West Coast and Islands North North East Cent­ral South 36 Part 2 — Nation­al Plan­ning Policy Sus­tain­able Places

1. Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises 2. Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion 3. Biod­iversity 4. Nat­ur­al places
2. Soils 6. Forestry, wood­land and trees 7. His­tor­ic assets and places
3. Green belts
4. Brown­field, vacant and derel­ict land and empty buildings
5. Coastal devel­op­ment
6. Energy
7. Zero waste
8. Sus­tain­able trans­port Live­able Places
9. Design, qual­ity and place
10. Loc­al Liv­ing and 20 minute neighbourhoods
11. Qual­ity homes
12. Rur­al homes
13. Infra­struc­ture first
14. Heat and cooling
15. Blue and green infrastructure
16. Play, recre­ation and sport
17. Flood risk and water management
18. Health and safety
19. Digit­al infra­struc­ture Pro­duct­ive Places
20. Com­munity wealth building
21. Busi­ness and industry
22. City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres
23. Retail
24. Rur­al development
25. Tour­ism
26. Cul­ture and creativity
27. Aquacul­ture
28. Min­er­als 94 Part 3 — Annexes A — How to use this doc­u­ment B — Nation­al Devel­op­ments State­ments of Need C- Spa­tial plan­ning pri­or­it­ies D — Six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places E — Min­im­um all-ten­ure hous­ing land require­ment F — Gloss­ary of defin­i­tions G — Acronyms

Min­is­teri­al Fore­word Tom Arthur MSP Min­is­ter for Pub­lic Fin­ance, Plan­ning and Com­munity Wealth Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 02 I am delighted to pub­lish Scotland’s fourth Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work. I am proud that, for the first time, we have brought togeth­er our long-term spa­tial strategy with a com­pre­hens­ive set of nation­al plan­ning policies to form part of the stat­utory devel­op­ment plan. The world is chan­ging, and so are Scotland’s places. This strategy sets out how we will work togeth­er in the com­ing years to improve people’s lives by mak­ing sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places. This will play a key role in deliv­er­ing on the United Nations Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals, as well as our nation­al out­comes. Plan­ning car­ries great respons­ib­il­ity – decisions about devel­op­ment will impact on gen­er­a­tions to come. Put­ting the twin glob­al cli­mate and nature crises at the heart of our vis­ion for a future Scot­land will ensure the decisions we make today will be in the long-term interest of our coun­try. As we recov­er from the pan­dem­ic we are work­ing towards achiev­ing net zero in a way which also tackles long­stand­ing chal­lenges and inequal­it­ies. We live in chal­len­ging times, but bet­ter places will be an import­ant part of our response to our stra­tegic pri­or­it­ies of net zero, child poverty and a well­being eco­nomy. Plan­ning will also play a crit­ic­al role in deliv­er­ing the Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Trans­form­a­tion and in com­munity wealth build­ing. Plan­ning is already a fully devolved func­tion of the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment. Our glob­al repu­ta­tion for excel­lence and expert­ise in this field demon­strates what can be achieved when the choices are in our own hands. We can build on this. By secur­ing a new future for Scot­land as an inde­pend­ent coun­try, addi­tion­al powers will be avail­able to sup­port pub­lic and private sec­tor invest­ment in devel­op­ment and infra­struc­ture across our coun­try. Changes to our places will not always be easy. People care about their neigh­bour­hoods and rightly and reas­on­ably expect that new devel­op­ment should improve their lives, rather than under­min­ing what they value most. To help deliv­er on this strategy I am com­mit­ted to involving a wider range of people in plan­ning. A fairer and more inclus­ive plan­ning sys­tem will ensure that every­one has an oppor­tun­ity to shape their future so that our places work for all of us. I also recog­nise that plan­ning author­it­ies across Scot­land will need sup­port and guid­ance to put our pro­pos­als and policies into prac­tice, and will con­tin­ue to work with the pro­fes­sion and loc­al gov­ern­ment to ensure our sys­tem can real­ise its full poten­tial. The pro­cess for pre­par­ing this strategy has shown what can be achieved when we work togeth­er. I greatly appre­ci­ate the ideas that people and organ­isa­tions have con­trib­uted. I am also very grate­ful to the Scot­tish Par­lia­ment for the time and energy they have put into their scru­tiny of the draft doc­u­ment. Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 has benefited con­sid­er­ably from their thought­ful and con­struct­ive input. Min­is­teri­al Foreword

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 03

Part 1

A Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy for Scot­land 2045 The world is facing unpre­ced­en­ted chal­lenges. The glob­al cli­mate emer­gency means that we need to reduce green­house gas emis­sions and adapt to the future impacts of cli­mate change. We will need to respond to a grow­ing nature crisis, and to work togeth­er to enable devel­op­ment that addresses the social and eco­nom­ic leg­acy of the coronavir­us pan­dem­ic, the cost crisis and long­stand­ing inequal­ity. out­comes are con­cen­trated in parts of Scot­land where life expect­ancy is sig­ni­fic­antly lower than in more advant­aged areas. Access to the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment var­ies, and pol­lu­tion and derel­ict land is con­cen­trated in some places. Pop­u­la­tion change will bring fur­ther chal­lenges in the future, par­tic­u­larly in rur­al parts of Scot­land. Many people have lim­ited access to oppor­tun­it­ies because of the way our places have been designed in the past, and our city and town centres have exper­i­enced accel­er­at­ing change in recent years. Scotland’s rich her­it­age, cul­ture and out­stand­ing envir­on­ment are nation­al assets which sup­port our eco­nomy, iden­tity, health and well­being. Many com­munit­ies bene­fit from great places with We have already taken sig­ni­fic­ant steps towards excel­lent qual­ity of life and qual­ity, afford­able homes. Many people can eas­ily access high qual­ity loc­al green­spaces and neigh­bour­hood facil­it­ies, safe and wel­com­ing streets and spaces and build­ings that reflect diverse cul­tures and aspir­a­tions. Increas­ingly, com­munit­ies have been find­ing new ways to live sus­tain­ably, includ­ing by tak­ing con­trol of their prop­erty or land. How­ever, people liv­ing in Scot­land have very dif­fer­ent life chances, at least partly a res­ult of the places where they live. Past indus­tri­al restruc­tur­ing has had sig­ni­fic­ant impacts in some places and com­munit­ies. Dis­ad­vant­age, child poverty and poor health decar­bon­ising energy and land use, but choices need to be made about how we can make sus­tain­able use of our nat­ur­al assets in a way which bene­fits com­munit­ies. Plan­ning is a power­ful tool for deliv­er­ing change on the ground in a way which brings togeth­er com­pet­ing interests so that decisions reflect the long-term pub­lic interest. Past, present and future chal­lenges mean that we will need to make the right choices about where devel­op­ment should be loc­ated. We also need to be clear about the types of infra­struc­ture we will need to build, and the assets that should be pro­tec­ted to ensure they con­tin­ue to bene­fit future gen­er­a­tions. Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 04 Spa­tial prin­ciples We will plan our future places in line with six over­arch­ing spa­tial prin­ciples: • • • • • • Apply­ing these prin­ciples in prac­tice We want our future places to work for every­one. Rather than com­prom­ise or trade-offs between envir­on­ment­al, social and eco­nom­ic object­ives, this is an integ­rated strategy to bring togeth­er Just trans­ition. We will empower people to shape their places and ensure the trans­ition to cross-cut­ting pri­or­it­ies and achieve sus­tain­able net zero is fair and inclus­ive. Con­serving and recyc­ling assets. We will make pro­duct­ive use of exist­ing build­ings, places, infra­struc­ture and ser­vices, lock­ing in car­bon, min­im­ising waste, and build­ing a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy. Loc­al liv­ing. We will sup­port loc­al live­ab­il­ity and improve com­munity health and well­being by ensur­ing people can eas­ily access ser­vices, green­space, learn­ing, work and leis­ure loc­ally. Com­pact urb­an growth. We will lim­it urb­an expan­sion so we can optim­ise the use of land to provide ser­vices and resources, includ­ing car­bon stor­age, flood risk man­age­ment, blue and green infra­struc­ture and biod­iversity. Rebal­anced devel­op­ment. We will tar­get devel­op­ment to cre­ate oppor­tun­it­ies for com­munit­ies and invest­ment in areas of past decline, and man­age devel­op­ment sus­tain­ably in areas of high demand. Rur­al revital­isa­tion. We will encour­age sus­tain­able devel­op­ment in rur­al areas, recog­nising the need to grow and sup­port urb­an and rur­al com­munit­ies togeth­er. These prin­ciples will play a key role in deliv­er­ing on the United Nations (UN) Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals (SDGs) and our nation­al out­comes. devel­op­ment. By apply­ing these spa­tial prin­ciples, our nation­al spa­tial strategy will sup­port the plan­ning and deliv­ery of: • • • sus­tain­able places, where we reduce emis­sions, restore and bet­ter con­nect biod­iversity; live­able places, where we can all live bet­ter, health­i­er lives; and pro­duct­ive places, where we have a green­er, fairer and more inclus­ive well­being eco­nomy. Eight­een nation­al devel­op­ments sup­port this strategy, includ­ing single large scale pro­jects and net­works of sev­er­al smal­ler scale pro­pos­als that are col­lect­ively nation­ally sig­ni­fic­ant. Nation­al devel­op­ments will be a focus for deliv­ery, as well as exem­plars of the Place Prin­ciple, place­mak­ing and a Com­munity Wealth Build­ing (CWB) approach to eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment. Region­al spa­tial strategies and Loc­al Devel­op­ment Plans (LDPs) should identi­fy and sup­port nation­al devel­op­ments which are rel­ev­ant to their areas. The strategy will be taken for­ward in dif­fer­ent ways across Scot­land, reflect­ing the diverse char­ac­ter, assets and chal­lenges of our places. To guide this, we have iden­ti­fied region­al spa­tial pri­or­it­ies for five broad regions of Scot­land which will inform the pre­par­a­tion of region­al spa­tial strategies (RSS) and LDPs by plan­ning author­it­ies. Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 05 Table 1 — Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 Sum­mary Spa­tial prin­ciples Nation­al Devel­op­ments Policies Key policy links Cross cut­ting policies • Just trans­ition Con­serving and recyc­ling assets Sus­tain­able places SDGs: 7, 11, 12, 13 Nation­al out­comes: Envir­on­ment, com­munit­ies, eco­nomy • • • Energy Innov­a­tion Devel­op­ment on the islands. Pumped Hydro Stor­age Stra­tegic Renew­able Elec­tri­city Gen­er­a­tion and Trans­mis­sion Infra­struc­ture Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Mater­i­als Man­age­ment Facil­it­ies • Urb­an Sus­tain­able, Blue and Green • Tack­ling the cli­mate and nature crises Cli­mate mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion Biod­iversity Nat­ur­al places • Soils Forestry, wood­land and trees • His­tor­ic assets and places • Green belts • Brown­field land, vacant and derel­ict land • Land Use — get­ting the best from our land: strategy 2021 – 2026 • Mak­ing things last: a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy strategy for Scot­land • Scotland’s Energy Strategy • Scotland’s Envir­on­ment Strategy • Scotland’s Forestry Strategy • Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy • • and empty build­ings Water Man­age­ment Solu­tions • Coastal devel­op­ment • Energy • Zero waste • Sus­tain­able trans­port • Urb­an Mass/​Rapid Trans­it Net­works • • • Live­able places SDGs: 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11 • Live­able places Com­pact urb­an growth Nation­al out­comes: Com­munit­ies, cul­ture, human rights, chil­dren and young people, health • • Cent­ral Scot­land Green Net­work Nation­al Walk­ing, Cyc­ling and Wheel­ing Net­work Edin­burgh Water­front Dun­dee Water­front • Stran­raer Gate­way • A Digit­al Fibre Net­work • • • Design, qual­ity and place Loc­al liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods A Con­nec­ted Scot­land • Qual­ity homes • Rur­al homes Infra­struc­ture first Heat and cool­ing Blue and green infra­struc­ture • Play, recre­ation and sport • Flood risk and water man­age­ment • Health and Safety • Digit­al infra­struc­ture • A Health­i­er Future: Scotland’s diet and healthy weight deliv­ery plan • Clean­er Air for Scot­land 2 • Cre­at­ing Places • Cul­ture Strategy • Heat in Build­ings Strategy • Hous­ing to 2040 • Learn­ing Estate Strategy/​Learning Estate Invest­ment Pro­gramme • Pub­lic Health Pri­or­it­ies for Scot­land • Remote, Rur­al and Islands Hous­ing Action Plan (pub. Spring 2023) • Scotland’s Pop­u­la­tion Strategy • • • • • Rebal­an­cing devel­op­ment Rur­al revital­isa­tion Pro­duct­ive places SDGs: 1, 2, 8, 9, 11, 14 • Clyde Mis­sion Aber­deen Har­bour Nation­al Strategy for Eco­nom­ic Trans­form­a­tion Retail Strategy for Scot­land Report of the City Centre Recov­ery Taskforce • Scot­tish land rights and respons­ib­il­it­ies state­ment • Town Centre Action Plan 2 • Indus­tri­al Green Trans­ition Zones Com­munity wealth build­ing Nation­al out­comes: Fair Busi­ness and industry work and busi­ness, City, town, loc­al and com­mer­cial centres eco­nomy, poverty, Retail com­munit­ies Rur­al devel­op­ment Tour­ism Cul­ture and cre­ativ­ity Aquacul­ture • • • • • • Hunter­ston Stra­tegic Asset • Chapel­cross Power Sta­tion • • Redevel­op­ment • High Speed Rail • Min­er­als • Cli­mate Change Plan • Cli­mate Change Adapt­a­tion Pro­gramme • Just Trans­ition Plans • Nation­al Trans­port Strategy • Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan • Stra­tegic Trans­port Pro­jects Review 2 • Nation­al Islands Plan • Nation­al Mar­ine Plan • Tack­ling Child Poverty

Deliv­ery Plan

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 06 7 AFFORD­ABLE AND CLEAN ENERGY 11 SUS­TAIN­ABLE CIT­IES AND COM­MUNIT­IES 12 RESPONS­IBLE CON­SUMP­TION AND PRO­DUC­TION 13 CLI­MATE ∞ Sus­tain­able places Our cli­mate is chan­ging, with increas­ing rain­fall, extreme weath­er events and high­er tem­per­at­ures that will intensi­fy in the com­ing years. This will increase flood risk, water scarcity, envir­on­ment­al change, coastal erosion, impact on forestry and agri­cul­ture, and gen­er­ate risks to health, food secur­ity and safety. Impacts will not be equal and com­munit­ies who already face dis­ad­vant­age will be par­tic­u­larly affected. Scotland’s high qual­ity envir­on­ment, and the nat­ur­al cap­it­al it sup­ports, under­pin our approach to tack­ling cli­mate change and the eco­nomy and is fun­da­ment­al to our health and well­being. It provides the essen­tials we all need to sur­vive, includ­ing clean air, water and food. How­ever, the health of the planet’s eco­sys­tems is declin­ing faster than at any point in human his­tory and our nat­ur­al envir­on­ment is facing sig­ni­fic­ant chal­lenges, includ­ing ongo­ing loss of biod­iversity. Since the 1990s alone, wild­life pop­u­la­tions in Scot­land have declined, on aver­age, by around a quarter. This threatens the capa­city of the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment to provide the ser­vices we all rely on, and reduces our resi­li­ence to the impacts of cli­mate change. Scotland’s Cli­mate Change Plan, backed by legis­la­tion, has set our approach to achiev­ing net zero emis­sions by 2045, and we must make sig­ni­fic­ant pro­gress towards this by 2030 includ­ing by redu­cing car kilo­metres trav­elled by 20% by redu­cing the need to travel and pro­mot­ing more sus­tain­able trans­port. Just Trans­ition sec­tor plans, designed and delivered with those impacted, will play an import­ant role in deliv­er­ing the change we need to see. We must also adapt to the impacts of cli­mate change that are already locked in, by deliv­er­ing Scotland’s Cli­mate Change Adapt­a­tion Pro­gramme. Scotland’s Cli­mate Assembly set out recom­mend­a­tions for how Scot­land should change to tackle the cli­mate emer­gency and gives us a key insight into the meas­ures the Scot­tish Pub­lic expect for a just trans­ition to net zero emis­sions by 2045. Scotland’s Energy Strategy will set a new agenda for the energy sec­tor in anti­cip­a­tion of con­tinu­ing innov­a­tion and invest­ment. The inter­play between land and sea will be crit­ic­al, giv­en the scale of off­shore renew­able energy resources. Our Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment Plan and Nation­al Trans­port Strategy are clear that we must work with our exist­ing infra­struc­ture assets first, before invest­ing in addi­tion­al assets. Scotland’s Envir­on­ment Strategy sets out the Scot­tish Government’s vis­ion for tack­ling the twin cli­mate and nature crises. Build­ing on this, a new Scot­tish Biod­iversity Strategy will set tar­gets for halt­ing biod­iversity loss by 2030 and restor­ing and regen­er­at­ing biod­iversity by 2045. Scotland’s Land Use Strategy aims to make effi­cient use of our land by man­aging com­pet­ing activ­it­ies in a sus­tain­able way.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 07 Nation­al spa­tial strategy Scotland’s future places will be net zero, nature-pos­it­ive places that are designed to reduce emis­sions and adapt to the impacts of cli­mate change, whilst pro­tect­ing, recov­er­ing and restor­ing our envir­on­ment. Meet­ing our cli­mate ambi­tion will require a rap­id trans­form­a­tion across all sec­tors of our eco­nomy and soci­ety. This means ensur­ing the right devel­op­ment hap­pens in the right place. Every decision on our future devel­op­ment must con­trib­ute to mak­ing Scot­land a more sus­tain­able place. We will encour­age low and zero car­bon design and energy effi­ciency, devel­op­ment that is access­ible by sus­tain­able travel, and expan­sion of renew­able energy gen­er­a­tion. It is also cru­cial that we build resi­li­ence to the future impacts of cli­mate change includ­ing water resources and assets and devel­op­ment on our coasts. Our places will also need to evolve to help us cope with chan­ging tem­per­at­ures. Our com­mit­ment to a just trans­ition, means that our jour­ney to a net zero soci­ety and nature recov­ery must involve, and be fair to, every­one. We will grow a cir­cu­lar eco­nomy and make best use of embod­ied car­bon by con­serving and recyc­ling assets, includ­ing by encour­aging sus­tain­able design and the wise use of resources. To respond to the glob­al biod­iversity crisis, nature recov­ery must be at the heart of future places. We will secure pos­it­ive effects for biod­iversity, cre­ate and strengthen nature net­works and invest in nature-based solu­tions to bene­fit nat­ur­al cap­it­al and con­trib­ute to net zero. We will use our land wisely includ­ing through a renewed focus on reusing vacant and derel­ict land to help lim­it the new land that we build on. We will pro­tect and enhance our his­tor­ic envir­on­ment, and safe­guard our shared her­it­age for future gen­er­a­tions. We will also work togeth­er to ensure that devel­op­ment onshore aligns with nation­al, sec­tor­al and region­al mar­ine plans. Nation­al devel­op­ments Six nation­al devel­op­ments sup­port the deliv­ery of sus­tain­able places: • • • • • • Energy Innov­a­tion Devel­op­ment on the Islands provides infra­struc­ture for low car­bon fuels for com­munit­ies and com­merce, as well as for export. This will con­trib­ute to improved energy secur­ity, unlock oppor­tun­it­ies for employ­ment and busi­ness, and help to put Scot­land at the fore­front of low car­bon fuel innov­a­tion. Pumped Hydro Stor­age extends hydro- elec­tri­city capa­city to sup­port the trans­ition away from fossil fuels, whilst also provid­ing employ­ment oppor­tun­it­ies in rur­al areas. Stra­tegic Renew­able Elec­tri­city Gen­er­a­tion and Trans­mis­sion Infra­struc­ture sup­ports elec­tri­city gen­er­a­tion and asso­ci­ated grid infra­struc­ture through­out Scot­land, provid­ing employ­ment and oppor­tun­it­ies for com­munity bene­fit, help­ing to reduce emis­sions and improve secur­ity of sup­ply. Cir­cu­lar Eco­nomy Mater­i­als Man­age­ment Facil­it­ies facil­it­ates deliv­ery of zero waste object­ives by redu­cing the need for new mater­i­als, resource use and emis­sions. Urb­an Sus­tain­able, Blue and Green Sur­face Water Man­age­ment Solu­tions is an exem­plar of a nature based, infra­struc­ture first approach to catch­ment wide sur­face water flood risk man­age­ment to help our two largest cit­ies adapt to the future impacts of cli­mate change. Urb­an Mass/​Rapid Trans­it Net­works facil­it­ates a shift towards sus­tain­able trans­port in Glas­gow, Edin­burgh, and Aber­deen and their wider regions, help­ing to reduce trans­port related emis­sions and sup­port­ing access­ib­il­ity for all.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 08 CROSS-CUT­TING OUT­COME AND POLICY LINKS: REDU­CING GREEN­HOUSE GAS EMIS­SIONS Our strategy and policies sup­port devel­op­ment that helps to meet green­house gas emis­sions tar­gets. The glob­al cli­mate emer­gency and the nature crisis have formed the found­a­tions for the spa­tial strategy as a whole. The region­al pri­or­it­ies share oppor­tun­it­ies and chal­lenges for redu­cing emis­sions and adapt­ing to the long-term impacts of cli­mate change, in a way which pro­tects and enhances our nat­ur­al envir­on­ment. Policy 1 gives sig­ni­fic­ant weight to the glob­al cli­mate emer­gency in order to ensure that it is recog­nised as a pri­or­ity in all plans and decisions. Policy 2 will ensure that emis­sions from new devel­op­ment are min­im­ised as far as pos­sible. A healthy nat­ur­al envir­on­ment is key to redu­cing emis­sions. Policies 3 and 4 pro­tect biod­iversity and nat­ur­al assets, which in turn play a cru­cial role in car­bon reduc­tion. Policy 5 provides sig­ni­fic­ant pro­tec­tion for peat­land and car­bon rich soils and Policy 6 aims to pro­tect and expand forests, wood­land and trees. Blue and green infra­struc­ture is sup­por­ted by Policy 20. Policy 10 encour­ages the use of nat­ur­al solu­tions to coastal pro­tec­tion. Policy 7 pro­tects the embod­ied car­bon in the his­tor­ic built envir­on­ment, and Policy 9 makes bet­ter use of pre­vi­ously used land and build­ings, help­ing to lock in car­bon. By sup­port­ing the trans­ition of key emis­sions gen­er­at­ing activ­it­ies, Policy 11 sup­ports renew­able energy devel­op­ment, Policy 19 helps to decar­bon­ise heat, along­side Policy 18 and its encour­age­ment of an infra­struc­ture first approach. Policy 12 encour­ages sus­tain­able waste man­age­ment, and Policy 13 will facil­it­ate a trans­ition towards more sus­tain­able, lower emis­sions travel includ­ing act­ive travel and pub­lic trans­port. Sev­er­al policies sup­port more loc­al liv­ing and lim­it the use of addi­tion­al land for devel­op­ment. This includes Policy 8 which man­ages devel­op­ment in the green­belt, Policy 15 which pro­motes loc­al liv­ing, includ­ing where feas­ible 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods, and Policy 16 which focuses on deliv­er­ing new homes that are designed to a high stand­ard and loc­ated in sus­tain­able places. Min­im­ising and redu­cing emis­sions is also integ­ral to the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, as set out in Policy 14. Policies 17 and 29 sup­port rur­al devel­op­ment which is com­pat­ible with cli­mate change tar­gets. Policy 24 facil­it­ates the roll out of digit­al infra­struc­ture, help­ing to reduce the need to travel. Policy 27 pro­motes a town centre first approach to devel­op­ment and Policy 28 restricts addi­tion­al out of town retail devel­op­ment. Policies relat­ing to pro­duct­ive places are con­sist­ent with our ambi­tion for green growth in the futures. More spe­cific­ally, Policy 33 is clear that fossil fuel explor­a­tion, devel­op­ment and pro­duc­tion (exclud­ing uncon­ven­tion­al oil and gas) will not be sup­por­ted oth­er than in excep­tion­al cir­cum­stances, and that the Scot­tish Gov­ern­ment does not sup­port the devel­op­ment of uncon­ven­tion­al oil and gas in Scotland.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 09 CROSS-CUT­TING OUT­COME AND POLICY LINKS: IMPROV­ING BIOD­IVERSITY Our strategy and policies sup­port devel­op­ment that helps to secure pos­it­ive effects for biod­iversity. The nature crisis, togeth­er with the glob­al cli­mate emer­gency, under­pinned the spa­tial strategy as a whole. The action areas include pro­pos­als which pro­tect and enhance the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment. Policy 1 gives sig­ni­fic­ant weight to the nature crisis to ensure that it is recog­nised as a pri­or­ity in all plans and decisions. Policy 4 pro­tects and enhances nat­ur­al her­it­age, and this is fur­ther sup­por­ted by Policy 5 on soils and Policy 6 on forests, wood­land and trees. Policy 20 also pro­motes the expan­sion and con­nectiv­ity of blue and green infra­struc­ture, whilst Policy 10 recog­nises the par­tic­u­lar sens­it­iv­it­ies of coastal areas. Pro­tec­tion of the nat­ur­al fea­tures of brown­field land is also high­lighted in Policy 9, and pro­tec­tion of the green belt in Policy 8 will ensure that biod­iversity in these loc­a­tions is con­served and access­ible to com­munit­ies, bring­ing nature into the design and lay­out of our cit­ies, towns, streets and spaces in Policy 14. Most sig­ni­fic­antly, Policy 3 plays a crit­ic­al role in ensur­ing that devel­op­ment will secure pos­it­ive effects for biod­iversity. It rebal­ances the plan­ning sys­tem in favour of con­serving, restor­ing and enhan­cing biod­iversity and pro­motes invest­ment in nature-based solu­tions, bene­fit­ing people and nature. The policy ensures that LDPs pro­tect, con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity and pro­mote nature recov­ery and nature res­tor­a­tion. Pro­pos­als will be required to con­trib­ute to the enhance­ment of biod­iversity, includ­ing by restor­ing degraded hab­it­ats and build­ing and strength­en­ing nature net­works. Adverse impacts, includ­ing cumu­lat­ive impacts, of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als on the nat­ur­al envir­on­ment will be min­im­ised through care­ful plan­ning and design, tak­ing into account the need to reverse biod­iversity loss. Devel­op­ment pro­pos­als for nation­al, major or Envir­on­ment­al Impact Assess­ment (EIA) devel­op­ment will only be sup­por­ted where it can be demon­strated that the pro­pos­al will con­serve, restore and enhance biod­iversity, includ­ing nature net­works, so they are in a demon­strably bet­ter state than without inter­ven­tion. Pro­pos­als for loc­al devel­op­ment will include appro­pri­ate meas­ures to con­serve, restore and enhance biodiversity.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 10 000 3 GOOD HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 4 QUAL­ITY EDU­CA­TION 5UARY GENDER 6 CLEAN WATER 10 REDUCEDTIES AND SAN­IT­A­TION 11 SUS­TAIN­ABLE CIT­IES AND COM­MUNIT­IES Live­able places The glob­al pan­dem­ic has left a social leg­acy that requires urgent, as well as long-term action. Many people need bet­ter places to sup­port their lifelong health and well­being and build their future resi­li­ence. In recent years com­munit­ies have found ways to work togeth­er to find loc­al solu­tions to shared chal­lenges. How­ever, the cost crisis is again under­lin­ing the need for our future build­ings and places to do more to sup­port our long-term resi­li­ence. There remain sig­ni­fic­ant dif­fer­ences between the healthy life expect­ancy of people liv­ing in the most and least deprived parts of Scot­land. More people need to be involved in plan­ning their future places so that the built envir­on­ment is safe and wel­com­ing to every­one, includ­ing women, dis­abled people, chil­dren and young people and black and eth­nic minor­ity groups. Scotland’s Tack­ling Child Poverty Deliv­ery Plan sets out actions required to con­tin­ue to reduce the num­ber of chil­dren liv­ing in poverty. It recog­nises the import­ance of place and con­tin­ued invest­ment in regen­er­a­tion, tar­geted to areas where the need is greatest. Access to afford­able, qual­ity homes in bet­ter places, as sup­por­ted by Hous­ing to 2040, will make an import­ant con­tri­bu­tion to address­ing the impact of the cost crisis, par­tic­u­larly on young­er people who will also bene­fit from reduced trans­port costs. The plan­ning sys­tem has an import­ant role to play in sup­port­ing the deliv­ery of homes which meet our future needs. Con­sist­ent with this, Scotland’s Pop­u­la­tion Strategy reflects the need for plan­ning to identi­fy the amount of land required for future homes and to enable more bal­anced demo­graph­ic change includ­ing sus­tain­able rur­al devel­op­ment. Health policies, includ­ing Scotland’s diet and healthy weight deliv­ery plan reflect the import­ance of places which provide oppor­tun­it­ies for exer­cise and access to healthy food. Our strategy for tack­ling social isol­a­tion and loneli­ness also recog­nises the import­ance of provid­ing qual­ity, access­ible and wel­com­ing places for every­one through place­mak­ing and regeneration.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 11 Nation­al spa­tial strategy Scotland’s future places will have homes and neigh­bour­hoods that are health­i­er, afford­able and vibrant places to live. We have an oppor­tun­ity to sig­ni­fic­antly improve our places, address long­stand­ing inequal­ity and elim­in­ate dis­crim­in­a­tion, help­ing to trans­form our coun­try for the bet­ter. Clean­er, safer and green­er places and improved open spaces will build resi­li­ence and provide wider bene­fits for people, health and biod­iversity, in a bal­anced way. We will plan our future places in a way that improves loc­al liv­ing, so that we live in com­munit­ies that are inclus­ive, empowered, resi­li­ent, safe and provides oppor­tun­ites for learn­ing. Qual­ity homes will be bet­ter served by loc­al facil­it­ies and ser­vices by apply­ing the prin­ciples of loc­al liv­ing to devel­op­ment pro­pos­als. The concept of 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods will help to sup­port this, par­tic­u­larly in more urb­an areas. In rur­al areas the approach to loc­al liv­ing will be shaped by loc­al con­text. Plan­ning must also enable the deliv­ery of good qual­ity, afford­able homes by alloc­at­ing enough land in the right loc­a­tions to meet cur­rent and future needs and aspir­a­tions. Recog­nising the need for live­able places to be con­sist­ent with our ambi­tion for net zero and nature recov­ery, we will pro­mote com­pact urb­an growth. High­er dens­ity devel­op­ment which will help to sus­tain pub­lic trans­port and sup­port loc­al liv­ing. Vir­tu­al con­nectiv­ity and con­tin­ued invest­ment in act­ive travel links will also be import­ant. We want to make bet­ter use of our spaces to sup­port phys­ic­al activ­ity, relax­a­tion and play, to bring people togeth­er and to cel­eb­rate our cul­ture, diversity and her­it­age. Build­ings and oth­er phys­ic­al assets can also sup­port activ­it­ies based on intan­gible cul­tur­al assets such as Gael­ic lan­guage. We will improve green infra­struc­ture to bring nature into our towns and cit­ies, con­nect­ing people with nature, build­ing resi­li­ence and help­ing our biod­iversity to recov­er and flour­ish. We will ensure we work towards a stronger infec­tion-resi­li­ent soci­ety through adapt­a­tions to our buid­lings and the spaces around them. Our strategy is to value, enhance, con­serve and cel­eb­rate our places and to build bet­ter com­munit­ies for future gen­er­a­tions. A stronger com­mit­ment to place­mak­ing, through a design- led approach and a focus on qual­ity, will ensure every new devel­op­ment improves the exper­i­ence of our places. Under­pin­ning this, every­one must have an oppor­tun­ity to help shape their loc­al neigh­bour­hoods. We will con­tin­ue to work to broaden involve­ment in the plan­ning sys­tem as a whole.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 12 Nation­al devel­op­ments Six nation­al devel­op­ments sup­port the deliv­ery of live­able places: • • • • • • Cent­ral Scot­land Green Net­work restores nature at scale and acts as an exem­plar of green infra­struc­ture in place­mak­ing that provides bene­fits for com­munit­ies and sup­ports a well­being eco­nomy. This will provide mul­tiple bene­fits for health, biod­iversity, and will help us to mit­ig­ate and adapt to cli­mate change. Action should con­tin­ue to focus on areas where com­munity well­being and resi­li­ence would bene­fit most. Nation­al Walk­ing, Cyc­ling and Wheel­ing Net­work strengthens and extends a nation­al act­ive travel net­work to reduce emis­sions from trans­port, focus­ing on areas where improve­ments to access­ib­il­ity are most needed. Edin­burgh Water­front cre­ates a high qual­ity, mixed use, loc­ally live­able place, con­trib­ut­ing to the sus­tain­able future devel­op­ment of Scotland’s cap­it­al city. Dun­dee Water­front deliv­ers a high qual­ity, mixed use, loc­ally live­able place demon­strat­ing resi­li­ent water­front regen­er­a­tion which anti­cip­ates and responds to cli­mate impacts. Stran­raer Gate­way acts as a hub for sur­round­ing com­munit­ies. Regen­er­a­tion will help cre­ate a high qual­ity, mixed use, loc­ally live­able place, optim­ising the area as a nation­al and inter­na­tion­al gate­way. A Digit­al Fibre Net­work enhances the con­nectiv­ity of com­munit­ies and help to facil­it­ate more sus­tain­able ways of liv­ing includ­ing in rur­al and island communities.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 13 CROSS-CUT­TING OUT­COME AND POLICY LINKS: A FAIR AND INCLUS­IVE PLAN­NING SYS­TEM Our strategy and policies sup­port devel­op­ment that helps to elim­in­ate dis­crim­in­a­tion and pro­mote equal­ity. We expect every­one involved in plan­ning to take steps to ensure that a wide range of people are involved in shap­ing their future places. Plan­ning author­it­ies are required to respect, pro­tect and ful­fil human rights in accord­ance with the Human Rights Act 1998. As per the Equal­ity Act 2010, the Pub­lic Sec­tor Equal­ity duty is applic­able and Equal­ity Impact Assess­ments, Fairer Scot­land Duty Assess­ments and where applic­able Island Com­munit­ies Impact Assess­ments are required for LDPs. The UN Con­ven­tion of the Rights of the Child also means that young people must be encour­aged to play an act­ive role in plan­ning. Through­out the plan­ning sys­tem, oppor­tun­it­ies are avail­able to engage in devel­op­ment plan­ning and decisions about future devel­op­ment. Such engage­ment, under­taken in line with stat­utory require­ments, should be early, col­lab­or­at­ive, mean­ing­ful and pro­por­tion­ate. Sup­port or con­cern expressed on mat­ters mater­i­al to plan­ning must be giv­en care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion in the determ­in­a­tion of devel­op­ment pro­pos­als. Our places can only work for every­one if the views of all users are prop­erly under­stood, but exper­i­ence shows that some people can find it more chal­len­ging to engage with plan­ning. There are oppor­tun­it­ies to involve a wider range of people in the plan­ning sys­tem. It is essen­tial, and a stat­utory require­ment, that people with pro­tec­ted char­ac­ter­ist­ics, includ­ing dis­ab­il­ity, race, age, sex and sexu­al ori­ent­a­tion, and includ­ing people from a range of socio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds, are giv­en par­tic­u­lar sup­port to express their views on plans and decisions, with con­sulta­tions designed to meet the com­mu­nic­a­tion needs of people. The spa­tial strategy as a whole is clear that our future devel­op­ment must sup­port a just trans­ition, and it high­lights oppor­tun­it­ies for devel­op­ment and regen­er­a­tion that are designed to tackle social, eco­nom­ic and health inequal­it­ies. Policy 14, focus­ing on the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places recog­nises that diversity is an integ­ral part of place­mak­ing. Chil­dren and young people will have an import­ant con­tri­bu­tion to make, giv­en the long-term impacts of plan­ning for future gen­er­a­tions. Women, as well as dis­abled people and their rep­res­ent­at­ives, can ensure that bar­ri­ers and chal­lenges of the design of our liv­ing and work­ing envir­on­ments are tackled effect­ively. We have also provided clear sup­port for devel­op­ment that will help to ensure human rights are main­tained, for example: Policy 16 on qual­ity homes which addresses the need for accom­mod­a­tion for Gypsy/​Travellers and Trav­el­ling Showpeople yards, as well as homes for older people and dis­abled people; and Policy 21 which sup­ports and facil­it­ates spaces and oppor­tun­it­ies for play, recre­ation and sport in our nat­ur­al and built envir­on­ments for chil­dren and people for all ages. Our impact assess­ment has demon­strated that there is poten­tial for sig­ni­fic­ant bene­fits from more sus­tain­able, live­able and pro­duct­ive places which will be delivered by these and oth­er policies. We recog­nise that deliv­ery will also depend on fair and inclus­ive engage­ment with people, and we will there­fore con­tin­ue to pro­mote best prac­tice and innov­a­tion, includ­ing in guid­ance on effect­ive com­munity engagement.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 14 CROSS-CUT­TING OUT­COME AND POLICY LINKS: HOMES THAT MEET OUR DIVERSE NEEDS Our strategy and policies sup­port devel­op­ment that helps to meet the hous­ing needs of people liv­ing in Scot­land includ­ing, in par­tic­u­lar, the hous­ing needs of older people and dis­abled people. The spa­tial strategy has taken into account future pop­u­la­tion and house­hold pro­jec­tions, and high­lights areas where there will be par­tic­u­lar chal­lenges arising from an age­ing pop­u­la­tion. Spa­tial prin­ciples, includ­ing loc­al liv­ing and just trans­ition, will also help to ensure that the needs of all people are reflec­ted in our future places. Policy 16 sup­ports the deliv­ery of high qual­ity, sus­tain­able homes that meet the needs of people through­out their lives. In par­tic­u­lar, it sup­ports pro­pos­als for new homes that improve afford­ab­il­ity and choice by being adapt­able to chan­ging and diverse needs, and which address iden­ti­fied gaps in pro­vi­sion. This could include: access­ible, adapt­able and wheel­chair access­ible homes; homes that meet the needs of older people; a range of size of homes; and oth­er spe­cial­ist groups. The major­ity of older people want to remain in their home as they age, pre­fer­ring main­stream hous­ing, and so access­ible and adapt­able homes can allow people to con­tin­ue to live inde­pend­ently. The close align­ment of plan­ning and hous­ing deliv­ery at the loc­al level, through LDPs and Loc­al Hous­ing Strategies, will help to deliv­er the right type and mix of homes in the right loc­a­tions. In addi­tion Hous­ing to 2040 sets out a com­mit­ment to Scot­tish Access­ible Home Stand­ard in ²⁰²⁵⁄₂₆. Devel­op­ment that provides homes to meet the needs of older people and dis­abled people will be fur­ther pro­moted by LDPs. Evid­ence reports will explain the action taken to sup­port and pro­mote the con­struc­tion and/​or adapt­a­tion of homes to meet their needs. Spa­tial strategies will take into account hous­ing needs and the avail­ab­il­ity of land for new homes, includ­ing for older people and dis­abled people through the Access­ible Home Stand­ard, wheel­chair hous­ing tar­gets and the con­sid­er­a­tion of access­ib­il­ity in design of the wider devel­op­ment and loc­al amen­ity. The plan­ning author­ity must also keep their plan under review, and mon­it­or any changes in this. Place­mak­ing and choices about the loc­a­tion of devel­op­ment will also help to meet the needs of older people and dis­abled people. Policy 14 sup­ports devel­op­ment that is con­sist­ent with the six qual­it­ies of suc­cess­ful places, includ­ing health and well­being, and safe and pleas­ant places for people to meet. Policy 15 sup­ports devel­op­ment that is con­sist­ent with the prin­ciples of loc­al liv­ing and 20 minute neigh­bour­hoods, help­ing to ensure our homes and wider neigh­bour­hoods meet all of our needs. As part of this, it recog­nises that afford­able hous­ing options, abil­ity to age in place and hous­ing diversity are an integ­ral part of more live­able places. Policy 13 is also clear that the views of dis­abled people must be sought when seek­ing to reduce reli­ance on the car includ­ing by man­aging car park­ing provision.

Part 1 — Nation­al Spa­tial Strategy

Nation­al Plan­ning Frame­work 4 15 NO 1 POVERTY 2 ZERO HUN­GER DECENT WORK AND 8 ECO­NOM­IC GROWTH 9 INDUSTRY, INNOV­A­TION AND INFRA­STRUC­TURE 11 SUS­TAIN­ABLE CIT­IES AND COM­MUNIT­IES 14 LIFE BELOW WATER Pro­duct­ive places The eco­nom­ic per­form­ance of dif­fer­ent parts of Scot­land var­ies con­sid­er­ably, with chal­lenges and oppor­tun­it­ies for dif­fer­ent places and sec­tors. At present, some com­munit­ies are par­tic­u­larly affected by high rates of poverty, one in five people of work­ing age is eco­nom­ic­ally inact­ive, and there is sig­ni­fic­ant scope to improve our pro­ductiv­ity and the scale and rate of busi­ness devel­op­ment. The unpre­ced­en­ted chal­lenge of the pan­dem­ic has cre­ated dif­fi­cult con­di­tions for some sec­tors includ­ing hos­pit­al­ity, tour­ism, and cul­ture. The cost