Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: Housing, commonly abbreviated as PPG 3, is a document produced by the British Government to advise local planning authorities on the treatment of housing within the planning process. The current version was introduced in March 2000 following the Rogers Report and replaced the 1992 version. Two updates were published on 24 January 2005 - Planning Policy Guidance 3: Housing: Planning for sustainable communities in rural areas and Planning Policy Guidance 3: Housing: Supporting the delivery of new housing.
PPG3 was introduced to steer policy away from the development of large, spacious houses on greenfield sites, towards higher density development using brownfield or urban sites wherever possible. It also sought to compel developers to provide a greater element of affordable housing.
Because of the slow speed at which Local Planning Authorities Local Plans were updated - and the recent changes to the planning system which abolished Local Plans in favour of Local Development Frameworks - local policy is often at variance with PPG3, resulting in confusion and a higher incidence of planning appeals.
PPG3 was replaced with Planning Policy Statement 3 (PPS3) in November 2006.