The National Planning Policy Framework and Archaeology: A Response – How did the Profession come to this?

The transition of planning policy for archaeology and the historic environment in England from Planning Policy Guidance note 16 (PPG 16) to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) via Planning Policy Statement 5 (PPS5) is an important one. It mirrors in some ways the development of the commercial branch of archaeology, and of its professional institute, the Institute for Archaeologists (IfA). In this response I do not seek to reprise or challenge the key policy changes, magisterially summarised by Flatman and Perring, but to explore what they mean and have meant for the sector, how the discipline reacted (or should have reacted), and what it all means for professionalism.