The Bill, which aims to simplify planning processes, remove bureaucratic hurdles and unlock billions in economic growth, was introduced to Parliament on 11th March.
Planning reforms are key to the government’s mission to build 1.5 million homes, enhance Britain’s energy security and raise living standards by delivering essential infrastructure like roads, railways and wind farms.
It also promises direct benefits to residents, including discounts on energy bills for those near new electricity infrastructure.
What is in the Bill?
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill includes the following reforms:
Planning committees:
Streamlining decisions with a national delegation scheme, mandatory training for committee members and controls over committee size to improve efficiency. Councils will also set their own planning fees to reinvest in speeding up the process.
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Nature Restoration Fund:
A new fund to pool contributions from developers for large-scale environmental projects, allowing construction to proceed more swiftly while meeting environmental goals.
Compulsory purchase reform:
Faster acquisition of land for housing and infrastructure projects by improving the compulsory purchase process and limiting excessive compensation payments.
Development corporations:
Strengthened powers for development corporations to deliver large-scale projects, including affordable housing, schools and transport links for new communities.
Strategic planning:
Spatial development strategies to coordinate growth across local authorities, ensuring sustainable development and aligned infrastructure.
National infrastructure projects:
The Bill will ensure a faster National Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime that delivers infrastructure projects faster and with fewer opportunities for legal challenges. It will make sure the consultation requirements for projects – such as windfarms, roads or railway lines – are streamlined, and ensure the national policies against which infrastructure applications are assessed are updated at least every five years so the government’s priorities are clear.
Clean energy reforms:
Prioritisation of approved renewable energy projects for grid connections and overhaul of the electricity grid to meet clean power goals by 2030.
Bill discounts:
Residents living within 500m of new pylons will receive up to £2,500 off their electricity bills over 10 years, along with additional community benefits from developers.
Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said the Bill will be transformative.
“We’re creating the biggest building boom in a generation,” she explained, “as a major step forward in getting Britain building again and unleashing economic growth in every corner of the country, by lifting the bureaucratic burden which has been holding back developments for too long.
“The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes, and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect billpayers.
“It will help us to deliver the 1.5 million homes we have committed to so we can tackle the housing crisis we have inherited head on – not only for people desperate to buy a home, but for the families and young children stuck in temporary accommodation and in need of a safe, secure roof over their heads.
“These reforms are at the heart of our Plan for Change, ensuring we are backing the builders, taking on the blockers, and delivering the homes and infrastructure this country so badly needs.”
Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the Home Builders Federation, added: “The swift moves to address the failings in the planning system are a very welcome and positive step towards increasing housing supply.
“Removing blockages, speeding up the decision-making process and ensuring local planning departments have the capacity to process applications effectively will be essential to getting more sites up and running. If the other constraints currently preventing house builders delivering more homes can be tackled, the changes made to planning will really allow output to accelerate.”
