After years of stagnation in housing delivery and mounting delays in national infrastructure projects, the UK Government is attempting a bold reset. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, backed by a detailed impact assessment (IA), has been presented as a decisive step to “fix the foundations of our economy” by reforming planning rules and speeding up development.
The Government’s Plan for Change agenda sets ambitious milestones: Delivering 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking 150 major infrastructure project decisions by the end of this Parliament. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is explicitly designed to meet these targets, while also supporting the “Clean Power 2030” goal of accelerating clean energy projects to achieve 95 per cent low-carbon electricity by 2030.
The IA indicates that the combined measures in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill could lead to significant net benefits. Over a ten-year appraisal (2026–2035), the Net Present Social Value (NPSV) of the Bill’s reforms is estimated at £3.2 billion with an optimistic high scenario up to £7.5 billion. These boosts largely come from reducing delays and regulatory barriers that have been holding back projects. Importantly, officials note this estimate likely underestimates the true scale of the benefits, since many wider societal gains are not easily quantified.
Streamlining planning and consenting processes for infrastructure
One of the main aims of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is to speed up and add certainty to planning consents, especially for major infrastructure projects.
The time it takes to secure approval for large projects – such as power stations or highways – has nearly doubled over the past decade. This not only delays public benefits that these specific projects will bring forth, but it also increases costs and deters investment throughout the economy.
In an effort to tackle these delays, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduces a faster, more predictable consenting regime for critical infrastructure. In practice, this includes a package of reforms to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) process established under the Planning Act 2008, these include:
- Regularly updated National Policy Statements (NPS): Sectoral NPS documents (which guide decisions on major projects) must be reviewed at least every five years to stay aligned with current government priorities.
- Simplified consultation and procedures: The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will trim excessive consultation requirements and other procedural “gold-plating” in the NSIP process without undermining public participation.
- Alternative routes and fewer legal bottlenecks: To prevent projects from getting stuck in the wrong track, authorities will gain the ability to redirect certain projects to alternative consent routes if more appropriate. This flexibility could mean, for example, that a project borderline between local planning and NSIP could be directed to the faster route.
Crucially, these infrastructure consenting reforms are not limited to England. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill also contains Scottish planning consenting reforms (with devolved consent) for energy infrastructure, developed in agreement with Scottish authorities.
These measures introduce mandatory pre-application engagement in Scotland, streamline how local objections to infrastructure are handled, and modernise how variations to existing consents are processed. The goal is a faster, more efficient system UK-wide, recognising that clean power and grid projects often span borders.
Other targeted changes include simplifying the Transport and Works Act orders (for transport schemes) and easing approval for electric vehicle chargepoint infrastructure, ensuring even relatively small but vital projects are not stuck.
On the local planning side, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill addresses decision-making delays and unpredictability in councils’ handling of planning applications. Fewer than two-thirds of major applications are decided within the statutory 13-week timeline, often due to capacity shortages in Local Planning Authorities (LPAs).
The IA notes a 25 per cent drop in planning officers in local government since 2013, leading to severe skills gaps. To counter this, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill reforms planning committees and fees to modernise local planning. A new national default delegation scheme will mean that if an application fully accords with the local development plan, it can be decided by professional planning officers under delegated authority, rather than waiting for a committee meeting.
To underpin better performance, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill empowers local authorities to set their own planning application fee schedules, with a nationally-set baseline. Today, planning fees often do not cover processing costs, leaving councils under-resourced (the current shortfall is estimated at £362 million per year). Under the reform, councils could raise fees (above the national minimum) to fund more planning officers and improved services, on the condition that fee income is reinvested into the planning department.
This is essentially a trade-off: Slightly higher application costs for developers and homeowners, in exchange for more timely, quality service. The Impact Assessment acknowledges a likely transfer of costs from applicants (households and businesses) to local authorities on the order of £602 million over ten years due to higher fees. However, this is viewed as a positive investment – enabling faster approvals and fewer costly appeals – by reducing delays and disputes, the planning process reforms are expected to save businesses far more in the long run.
Strategic planning and unlocking land for development
Another pillar of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is the introduction of strategic planning mechanisms across local boundaries, combined with powers to better unlock land for large-scale investment. Currently, outside of London (which has a city-wide plan), planning in England relies on voluntary cooperation between neighboring councils, which often falls short of addressing regional housing and infrastructure needs.
To address this, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill establishes a “universal system of strategic planning” to be implemented within five years. It will direct groups of local authorities to collaborate and produce Strategic Development Strategies (SDS). In effect, every part of England would be covered by a high-level plan that coordinates housing, jobs, and infrastructure across council boundaries.
The creation of these strategic plans is estimated to be around £101 million in staff time, evidence gathering, and examination – but it is outweighed by the long-term benefits of more orderly development and fewer conflicts in planning. The IA notes that while the cost of producing the plans is counted as a negative in the cost-benefit ledger, the major upsides – like increased development opportunities and investor confidence from having a clear plan – are real but not easily quantifiable.
Alongside planning coordination, the Bill reforms the compulsory purchase order (CPO) process, which is a tool public authorities use to acquire land for public benefit. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will simplify and streamline CPO procedures, aiming for quicker decisions and lower administrative costs for councils.
Itl also updates the remit of development corporations, which are special delivery bodies that can drive major development (like new towns or urban regeneration areas). Changes will allow development corporations to operate more flexibly and deliver a broader range of infrastructure, including adding heat networks to the types of infrastructure they can provide.
Nature Restoration Fund and environmental streamlining
The Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) is one of the headline reforms aimed at reconciling development with environmental regulation. In recent years, well-intentioned environmental rules have inadvertently stalled housing projects, as developers struggle to mitigate impacts on a site-by-site basis.
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill’s solution is to take a more strategic approach to nature recovery by establishing the NRF. This new fund essentially allows developers to pay into a central pot to fulfill their environmental obligations, rather than directly carrying out complex mitigation themselves on each development site. Developers would make a payment to the NRF to offset impacts like nutrient runoff or habitat loss, enabling their planning consent to be granted without delay.
Critically, other environmental requirements – such as mitigation for recreational disturbance to protected sites, protected species licensing, or water resource neutrality – could also be folded into the NRF in the future. That means the fund could become a one-stop mechanism to address various ecological checks in the planning process.
Beyond the NRF, the Bill and its related initiatives also address other environmental planning issues. The government signaled in its Plan for Change that it would replace current systems of environmental assessment (such as lengthy Environmental Impact Assessments and Habitats Regulations assessments) with a more streamlined system that still safeguards nature.
Similarly, ending the de facto ban on onshore wind in England and updating national planning policy to be more pro-growth are complementary moves to ensure environmental rules are balanced with the need for sustainable development.
Criticisms and future implications of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill
While the Planning and Infrastructure Bill has been broadly welcomed by industry and government stakeholders, it is not without its critics.
Environmental organisations have expressed concerns that the Planning and Infrastructure Bill could significantly weaken existing safeguards. The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has labeled the proposed changes as a “regression,” warning that they might undermine the UK’s commitments under the Environment Act 2021, particularly the goal to protect 30% of land and sea by 2030 .
A central point of contention is the introduction of the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF). Critics argue this approach may lead to the destruction of irreplaceable habitats, such as England’s chalk streams, without guaranteeing effective restoration elsewhere . The Wildlife and Countryside Link has highlighted that the Bill lacks robust mechanisms to ensure genuine ecological compensation, potentially facilitating habitat loss under the guise of development .
Another concern is that Local Planning Authorities (LPAs) are already grappling with resource constraints, and the Bill’s provisions could exacerbate these challenges. The delegation of planning decisions to officers, bypassing elected planning committees, raises concerns about diminished local democratic oversight. The Local Government Association (LGA) acknowledges that while the Bill includes measures to support councils, such as localised fee setting, these may not sufficiently address the systemic underfunding and staffing shortages that hinder effective planning .
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill also introduces significant changes to the judicial review process for major infrastructure projects. Currently, opponents can make up to three legal challenges, which can lead to substantial delays and costs. Under the proposed legislation, the number of opportunities for legal challenges would be reduced to two for most cases and only one for those judged “totally without merit” . Specifically, if a judge refuses permission at the initial stage and certifies the case as “totally without merit,” claimants will no longer be able to ask the Court of Appeal to reconsider.
This restriction may impede the public’s ability to hold developers and authorities accountable, particularly in cases where environmental or community interests are at stake. The Law Society has expressed concerns that stopping people from seeking permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal in such cases may deny access to justice by preventing decisions from being reconsidered.
Featured image via Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street on Flickr.
