Engineering news
Published on 17 August, the government’s revised National Planning Policy Framework sets out the government’s policies for planmaking and for making decisions on development proposals in England. The framework includes Policy E3, a standalone national decision-making policy covering freight and logistics.
Aimed at supporting the “effective and efficient movement of goods”, the policy states that development proposals should have good access to transport networks, including sustainable modes where possible, and should be sited and designed to limit environmental impact. It covers processes including distribution and transportation of goods alongside supporting infrastructure, such as rail freight terminals, intermodal facilities and heavy goods vehicle operating centres.
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK (CILT(UK)) welcomed the policy’s introduction. “CILT(UK) has consistently argued that freight needs to be considered from the outset when government makes decisions about transport, infrastructure and economic growth. It shouldn’t be something we try to accommodate after everything else has been decided,” said Daniel Parker-Klein, the organisation’s director of public policy.
“Giving freight and logistics a dedicated national planning policy is therefore an important step. The movement of goods underpins the economy and our everyday lives, and the places and infrastructure that make those movements possible need to be properly recognised in the planning system.”
Explicit inclusion of rail terminals in the policy is a “significant” change for the rail sector, wrote Dan Clark, founder of Rail Industry Connect, in an article last week (24 August). “Competition for appropriate sites, particularly around major cities and logistics corridors, has long been a constraint on developing new rail freight capacity.
“If the new policy translates into planning decisions that better recognise the strategic role and specific requirements of terminals, it could remove one of the barriers to creating the additional capacity needed for rail freight to grow.”
Steps included in the policy to “facilitate development to meet the needs of a modern economy” include making provisions for ‘last-mile’ deliveries, transport innovation and decarbonisation.
“For an industry that underpins virtually every part of the economy, freight has historically had a surprisingly uncomfortable relationship with the planning system. Too often the starting point has been the impacts that need to be mitigated rather than the essential economic and social function freight performs,” said Sue Terpilowski OBE FCILT, chair of CILT(UK)’s Public Policy Committee.
“Having a national decision-making policy specifically for freight and logistics is a significant and very welcome change. More importantly, E3 doesn’t sit in isolation. Read alongside the new policies on economic development, electricity networks and low-carbon energy, the framework begins to reflect rather better how modern freight networks actually work.”
Aimed at providing development in a “sustainable manner”, the national framework will play an important role in determining whether future applications for planning permission are approved.
“For years, we’ve effectively asked whether we can get enough electricity to the site the planning system wants us to use. We may increasingly be able to ask where the freight demand, transport connections and available power coincide. That’s a much more realistic way to plan the next generation of freight infrastructure,” Terpilowski said.
“Planning permission isn’t a grid connection and the new framework won’t remove every obstacle to freight decarbonisation. But it does change the starting point of the conversation.”
Want to learn more about the latest challenges, opportunities and engineering in rail freight? Showcasing new technologies, asset management and operational approaches, IMechE’s Rail Freight 2026 event will take place at the Institution’s One Birdcage Walk headquarters in London on 16 September. Find out more and book your attendance on the event page.
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