National Planning Framework (NPF)

The National Planning Framework is a replacement for the National Spatial Strategy (NSS) 2002 - 2020, which was a national planning framework for Ireland.

Project Ireland 2040 – National Planning Framework amongst a range of issues, addresses the future development direction of our cities, towns and rural areas. The framework specifically includes:

• The role of our Cities and Towns
• The potential of our Regions
• Rural Development
• Providing better quality of life for people and communities
• Provision of homes to meet future needs
• Our coastal and marine areas
• Co-ordination of place making with our neighbours
• The role of planning in responding to climate change
• The context for future infrastructural investment

The National Planning Framework seeks to:

• Guide the future development of Ireland, taking into account a projected 1 million increase in our population, the need to create 660,000 additional jobs to achieve full employment and a need for 550,000 more homes by 2040
• Enable people to live closer to where they work, moving away from the current unsustainable trends of increased commuting
• Secure more compact forms of urban development in all types of settlements
• Regenerate rural Ireland by promoting environmentally sustainable growth patterns
• Plan for and implement a better distribution of regional growth, in terms of jobs and prosperity
• Transform settlements of all sizes through imaginative urban regeneration and bring life / jobs back into cities, towns and villages
• Co-ordinate delivery of infrastructure and services in tandem with growth, through joined-up NPF/National Investment Plan and consistent sectoral plans, which will help to manage this growth and tackle congestion and quality of life issues.