The Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Part II of the Government’s Plan to Get Britain Building

The UK Government has published the much-anticipated Planning and Infrastructure Bill (the "Bill"), a significant piece of legislation aimed at accelerating the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing. The Bill outlines proposals to streamline planning and consenting processes, modernise planning committees, change the approach to nature recovery and enhance the performance of local planning authorities, making it a crucial development for the planning sector. The Bill follows the revised National Planning Policy Framework introduced in December 2024, and together they represent the Government's plan to get Britain building.

Background

First mentioned in July 2024 during the King's Speech, the Bill was described as an exciting initiative to "get Britain building" through planning reform. The Bill aims to address several issues within the planning system, including the burdensome processes that stall the delivery of major infrastructure projects and the need for local planning decisions to be made more efficiently.

Key Features

Critical Infrastructure, the Consenting Process, and National Policy Statements ("NPS") 

The Bill aims to simplify the consenting process for critical infrastructure projects, such as renewable energy projects, with the hope that decisions under the development consent order (“DCO”) regime can be made faster.

• Under a new system, NPSs will be reviewed and amended at least every five years to ensure they continue to reflect Government policy, with delays only allowed in exceptional circumstances.
• The consultation requirements for such projects will also be streamlined and better supported via guidance.
• There is provision in the Bill for promoters to make changes to their application if it doesn't meet specified criteria at the acceptance stage.

These changes are all aimed at ensuring that the front end of the DCO regime is more proportionate and less procedurally burdensome, but they are unlikely to lead to major time savings.

The opportunities for challenging consenting decisions by way of judicial review have also been reduced from three to one. This is achieved by introducing a category of cases that can be found to be 'totally without merit', thereby stripping the claimant of an opportunity to appeal. The Civil Procedure Rules are also to be amended so that applications for permission to apply for judicial review will be decided at an oral hearing, omitting a decision on the papers that could subsequently be re-opened at an oral hearing.

Provision is also made for the Secretary of State to disapply a requirement for development consent, allowing an alternative consenting regime to apply. This has long been called for and will be attractive to developers of various projects which hit thresholds but may be consented more quickly through other regimes.

While these changes are welcome, energy developers are more likely to be interested in the grid connection reforms, which will move to a 'first ready, first connected' system. Community benefits, in the form of financial incentives to facilitate new pylons and overhead electricity cables, are also provided for and accompanying guidance has been issued. However, this only addresses one piece of the infrastructure puzzle.

Electricity Infrastructure & DCO Regime in Scotland

The Bill introduces changes to outdated planning rules for electricity infrastructure, streamlining the consent process to enable decisions to be made faster. This is key to achieving the Scottish Government's net zero targets. Scotland will also seek to introduce some elements of the DCO regime – pre-application consultation, acceptance and examination – but without the same fixed timescales. Given the time it has taken for some Scottish projects to be awarded consent in recent years, developers will naturally be wary of introducing more procedural steps for no certainty on timescales.

A more detailed Law Now has been produced by CMS on this subject, which also captures the recent consultation on this topic (see HERE).

Planning Committees and Decision-making

To improve local planning decision-making, the Bill proposes several reforms. A national scheme of delegation is to be set out in regulations to standardise planning decisions across local authorities, reducing delays and improving decision-making. It was suggested during a February 2025 consultation that this national scheme of delegation could support the Government's proposals for brownfield passporting whereby details of the type of development considered appropriate on brownfield sites will be set out.

The Bill also proposes the creation of smaller planning committees to focus on significant development projects, allowing for such projects to receive expert oversight. Such proposals would only apply once relevant regulations come forward.

Mandatory training for planning committee members and persons exercising relevant mayoral planning functions is included to ensure that all members are well-informed about key planning principles and procedures and are capable of making robust decisions. Whilst increasing training for committee members is welcome, most councils already typically offer training, so it is unclear how the proposed mandatory training would differ and whether these proposals will result in any meaningful change.

Strategic Planning

The Bill brings back Spatial Development Strategies (“SDSs”) as the much-missed layer of 'strategic planning' across England. SDSs will be produced by mayoral, combined, county and unitary authorities, or groups of two or more of these authorities.

SDSs will form part of the statutory development plan. They will be reserved for policies that are of strategic importance to avoid duplication with local plans (and National Development Management Polices in due course). Local plans will have to conform with SDSs. SDSs will apportion housing and affordable housing across local areas. They will also identify strategically important infrastructure for facilitating development, addressing climate change and opportunities for improving the economic, social or environmental well-being of an area. An SDS cannot allocate a site but can relate to part of an area.

Strategic plans must fit together with any nature recovery strategy that is in place, helping to ensure a fully joined-up approach across the country.

Of note are the Secretary of State’s extensive powers to guide and ensure rapid and widespread SDS coverage across England, including power to direct that two or more authorities are to combine to form a strategic planning board and produce an SDS; power to direct policy context; control over the timing for production of an SDS; and powers to prevent withdrawal of an SDS, step in and recover costs of preparing an SDS and direct a review and replacement of an SDS.

We are also told that the Government “intends to update the National Planning Policy Framework and supporting guidance to provide strategic planning authorities with a clear policy framework to work within.”

In due course, mayoral authorities will also be given development control powers via the forthcoming Devolution Bill. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is limited to plan making powers.

The hope is that SDSs will alleviate local planning tensions by setting principles at a higher level and considering proposals across a broader area. However, the success of SDSs may, ultimately, be contingent on the Secretary of State’s willingness to intervene and whether there is sufficient resource to reintroduce this tier of policy and manage the likely wave of local plan reviews that will follow to ensure conformity with SDSs.

Nature Recovery via Environmental Delivery Plans

The Bill introduces measures to support development while promoting a country-wide approach to nature recovery. This is achieved via environmental delivery plans ("EDPs") which will be prepared by Natural England and will specify the areas and type of development to which they apply. EDPs will set out the specific environmental features likely to be negatively affected by development and how said effect is likely to occur. They need not identify all of the possible environmental impacts at the relevant development site, so developers are likely to still need to carry out their own environmental assessments in the usual way.

EDPs are also to set out the conservation measures that are to be undertaken by or on behalf of Natural England to protect the identified environmental features from development. The associated works will be paid for by a nature restoration levy (details of which are to be set out in the EDP) payable by developers.

Once the levy is paid, the environmental obligations specified in the EDP will be discharged, but only where Natural England accepts a request from the developer to pay the levy. Said request must be made before the development commences. This introduces a level of uncertainty for the developer as it is not a foregone conclusion that Natural England will accept the payment. There is provision for EDPs to make payment of the levy mandatory, and it is unclear under the Bill whether Natural England will still need to formally accept said payment before development commences.

Regulations will need to be introduced to address who will be liable to pay the levy. The Bill currently mimics the language used in respect of the community infrastructure levy, suggesting that a similar approach will be adopted.

Natural England will have the benefit of compulsory purchase powers to carry out this work.

Given the significant changes introduced on this topic a more detailed Law Now article will be published by CMS on the nature recovery reforms.

Development Corporations

The Bill grants development corporations enhanced and standardised powers to streamline the delivery of large-scale regeneration and development projects, including new towns. It ensures that all types of development corporations can provide essential infrastructure, such as heat networks, while emphasising the need to have regard to achieving sustainable development, mitigating and adapting to climate change, and the desirability of good design.

Historically, development corporations have faced challenges in securing the timely delivery of transport infrastructure due to a lack of local transport powers. To address this, the Bill mandates transport authorities to cooperate with development corporations. Should they fail, the Secretary of State can direct cooperation or, as a last resort, transfer specific transport powers and assets to the development corporations through regulations. However, given past failures with the duty to cooperate, it would be more effective if the Secretary of State had the authority to transfer transport powers at the first hint of trouble.

Existing legislation allows the Secretary of State to designate sites as proposed new towns. The Bill extends this to include urban extensions to existing towns, and to allow the development of both brownfield and greenfield sites. Planning permission for such sites is sought from the Secretary of State in consultation with the relevant local planning authority. The Levelling-Up and Regeneration Act 2023 ("LURA") further empowers development corporations with functions similar to planning authorities, aiming to expedite the planning process, though this legislation is not yet in force.

The ultimate goal here is to meet the Government's ambitious target of building 1.5 million homes, complete with the necessary infrastructure.

CPO Reform

The CPO reforms under the Bill aim to ensure that landowners receive what the Government considers to be 'fair' compensation, rather than inflated compensation based on the prospect of planning permission, commonly referred to as hope value.

Currently, under LURA, directions that remove hope value attributed from the assessment of compensation can be included in specific CPOs promoted by local authorities or NHS bodies where there is a public interest. The Bill expands the types of development where such directions may be sought including where CPOs are promoted on behalf of parish or community councils to deliver affordable and / or social housing.

There are also various changes to how some specific heads of compensation should be assessed, as between owners and occupiers and where there are costs associated with the loss of home space.

The Bill also proposes several technical changes to the CPO process to reduce administrative burdens and costs and make changes to the compensation regime.

Altogether, the changes are expected by the Government to encourage the use of CPO powers more widely by public bodies to deliver schemes that benefit communities.

Other Measures

Other measures included in the Bill are streamlining the process to install EV charging infrastructure, unlocking investment in long-duration electricity storage, allowing forestry authorities to bring forward development proposals relating to the generation of renewable energy on the land they manage, and empowering the Secretary of State to make regulations enabling local planning authorities to determine their own planning fees provided that these fees are capped at a cost-recovery level.

Comment 

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill represents significant reform to the UK planning sector. By streamlining processes and modernising committees, the Bill aims to accelerate the delivery of critical infrastructure and housing projects. Affected parties in the planning and development sectors should prepare for these changes by familiarising themselves with the new procedures and considering how the systematic reforms may impact them.

For further information, please email the authors or your usual CMS contact.