Planning rules have failed to link new homes to public transport, report finds

A decade of planning rules designed to create housing connected to public transport routes has achieved nothing, a report has found, with millions of people in new homes still dependent on cars to get to local amenities.

The study by the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) looked at more than 1.6m homes given planning permission in England from 2012 to 2021, finding that while major housing developments are supposed to be designed around transport infrastructure, this has not happened.

On average, across all the developments studied, it was twice as fast to reach the nearest hospital by car than public transport.

For other amenities such as schools, GPs, employment centres and town centres, car travel was 1.5 times as quick. There had been virtually no progress across the decade, the study found.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which governs planning decisions across England, is explicit that new developments should be located to prioritise easy use of public transport, or walking and cycling, with sites chosen to help this.

The RTPI is calling on ministers to look at what changes can be made as part of the consultation process about the revised NPPF, which aims to create 1.5m new homes during this parliament.

The report, compiled with data from LandTech, a property information company, found that cycling came closest in convenience to a car, taking on average 1.3 times as long to reach such destinations, while noting that this was not an option available to everyone.

While there were significant differences between regions, even in London it still took on average 1.3 times as long to reach major destinations by public transport than in a car.

Across England as a whole, 96% of the new homes studied were no more than 20 minutes' drive from a town centre, but this was only 66% for a 20-minute trip on public transport and 47% for a walk of the same distance.

Victoria Hills, RTPI chief executive, said: "It is essential that planning policies truly serve communities by creating environments that support health and sustainability. Planning should work for the people it impacts, ensuring communities flourish in healthy, well-connected places.

"To avoid repeating the mistakes of the past decade, the new NPPF must prioritise housing development in areas that reduce car reliance, bridge regional accessibility gaps, and support genuinely sustainable, vibrant communities. The time for policymakers to act is now."

Among its recommendations, the report suggests more investment in public transport; seeking to release development sites closer to existing transport infrastructure such as train stations; and disincentives for driving such as higher parking fees.

The proposed new NPPF has already been criticised by some councils for imposing targets for new housing, which they say are completely unrealistic for their area, both in terms of what can be built and, in some cases, the amount of homes needed.