Technical Notes 2025, Issue 224 - National Planning Improvement Framework: Improvement Action Plan – Update Report 2025

• The purpose of this Technical Note is to update members on the progress and monitoring of the Improvement Action Plan devised as part of the National Planning Improvement Framework (NPIF) for East Dunbartonshire (published in April 2025). A report on progress so far in implementing the action plan has been prepared jointly between the National Planning Improvement Team and Council officers (please find attached as Appendix 1).  The report will be published on the Council’s website. The update report was endorsed by the National Planning Improvement Champion on 12 December 2025 (please find confirmation letter attached as Appendix 2). 

• The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 has introduced a new approach to measuring the performance of planning authorities (replacing the previous Planning Performance Framework process). The Act has made it mandatory for planning authorities to prepare a report on their performance as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the financial year
• A new role of National Planning Improvement Champion was also introduced in the Act to monitor the performance of planning authorities and provide advice to them on the steps that could be taken to improve performance. Following engagement with various stakeholders involved in the planning process across Scotland, the National Planning Improvement Champion devised the NPIF process to satisfy the requirements of the 2019 Act
• Read further information on the National Planning Improvement Team and the NPIF process.
• A draft version of the NPIF for East Dunbartonshire was circulated to Members in February 2025, with the finalised and endorsed document being published in April 2025. The NPIF document contains an ‘Improvement Action Plan’ setting out 27 actions for the planning service to undertake during the 3-year NPIF period (24/25 to 26/27).  Whilst the full NPIF assessment is only necessary at the start of each 3-year period, an annual update report is required to ensure that the requirements of the Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 are met. View the initial NPIF assessment document
• In order to manage the rollout of the NPIF process, authorities across Scotland were grouped into 3 phased cohorts. As East Dunbartonshire took part in the second cohort, the update report does not cover a full 12- month period and instead details the progress made on implementing the actions between February 2025 and October 2025. The diagram below provides an overview of the progress made (based on the current status of each action). 

• The full Improvement Action Plan update report is attached to this Technical Note as Appendix 1
• As part of preparing the initial NPIF document, a peer review workshop was held on Wednesday 03 December 2024 - the purpose of which was to test an initial draft of the Council’s Self-Assessment and proposed actions with a group of stakeholders with particular experience in interacting with the Planning Service
• Participants in the session gave feedback on a number of matters related to the operation of the planning service and subsequent changes were made to the NPIF document as a result of the comments
• In the New Year, officers will contact the stakeholders who were involved the workshop to:
  • Provide a link to the update report for their information
  • Gauge the potential interest in hosting a follow-up stakeholder session, including the option to discuss a topic(s) relating to development management (planning application) matters.

For further information on the NPIF process and the progress made in implementing the Improvement Action Plan, please contact: Heather.Holland@eastdunbarton.gov.uk