MP wins campaign putting women and girls’ safety at heart of planning

Women and girls’ safety will be explicitly recognised in England’s national planning framework following a campaign by Frome’s MP Anna Sabine. 

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out national planning policies for England and how they should be applied.

The revised framework explicitly recognises the needs and safety of women and girls when places are designed.

It says streets and other routes should help create places that are “safe, inclusive and attractive” for all users, particularly women and girls and other groups who may be vulnerable to crime or the fear of crime.

It also strengthens consideration of safety in street design and recognises potential hazards that should be designed out.   

Anna said, “Women’s safety should never have been an optional extra in planning. For most women, feeling unsafe is not an abstract idea. It is something we think about when we decide where to walk, when to travel and whether we feel able to use a public space.

“We have become far too used to telling women to change their behaviour to stay safe, rather than asking whether the places around them have been designed with their safety in mind.

“That is why I am so pleased that the government has listened and that women and girls will now be explicitly considered in national planning policy.

“This is a significant campaign victory but more importantly, it has the potential to make a real difference to women’s lives for the next decade and hopefully for generations to come.”

Anna began campaigning after discovering that the draft planning framework contained no explicit reference to women, girls or gendered safety.

She called for women’s safety to be explicitly recognised in the NPPF, for the National Design Guide and National Model Design Code to include guidance on designing for women’s safety and for an independent review into violence against women and girls and the built environment.

She took the issue to ministers, raised it in Parliament, secured a Westminster Hall debate and worked with women’s safety experts, including Susannah from In Her Place, to push for the changes.

Anna also wrote to Jess Phillips MP, former minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, and Matthew Pennycook MP, minister for housing and planning, with her correspondence also sent to Angela Rayner MP.

The government initially argued that the planning framework should be “gender neutral”. Anna challenged this, arguing that treating everyone the same does not take account of the different ways women experience public spaces and the built environment.

Anna said the change was an important step towards ensuring the government’s commitment to tackling violence against women and girls is reflected across its policies.

She said, “Women should not have to campaign simply to be considered when we design the places where they live their lives. But this campaign shows what can happen when women’s experiences are listened to.

“The ultimate measure of success won’t be whether the word ‘women’ appears in the NPPF. It will be whether women feel safer walking home, whether girls feel able to use their local spaces, and whether women can live their lives without having to constantly calculate the risk around them. That is what this campaign was about from the beginning.”

Susannah from In Her Place, an organisation which champions the needs of women and girls, said, “These changes will help councils create new, more inclusive places which will change the lives of women and girls for the better.

“As a feminist, I’m also really pleased that so many knowledgeable women came together to comment on the draft and make it clear that this was necessary and that our voices were heard.”

The government’s Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, published in December 2025, described VAWG as a national emergency and committed to a “whole-of-society” approach to prevention.