Planning Policy Statement 7: What It Was and Why It Still Matters

Planning Policy Statement 7 (PPS7) sets out the Government’s planning policies for rural areas, including country towns and villages and the wider, largely undeveloped countryside up to the fringes of larger urban areas. Contrary to the normal policies of restraint for new residential development in the countryside, PPS7 contained an exciting provision (at paragraphs 10 and 11) that allowed new dwellings to be built in the countryside where they were of outstanding quality and design.

Those dwellings proposed under the aegis of paragraphs 10 and 11 of PPS7 are commonly known as “PPS7 houses”. The guidance stated that isolated new houses in the countryside would require special justification for planning permission to be granted, whilst at paragraph 11, it went onto say: –

Very occasionally, the exceptional quality and innovative nature of the design of a proposed, isolated new house may provide this special justification for granting planning permission. Such a design should be truly outstanding and ground-breaking, for example, in its use of materials, methods of construction or its contribution to protecting and enhancing the environment, so helping to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas. The value of such a building will be found in its reflection of the highest standards in contemporary architecture, the significant enhancement of its immediate setting and its sensitivity to the defining characteristics of the local area.