[UK] Planning and Infrastructure Bill - next steps

Since they were elected in July 2024, the government has moved at pace with implementing planning reform to fulfil its goal of delivering 1.5 million houses in England by the end of this Parliament. On 11 March 2025, the government unveiled the highly anticipated Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The Bill contains few surprises, aligning closely with what the government told us to expect. Rather than wholesale reform of the planning system, the Bill builds upon and works alongside other changes to the regime which are being brought forward through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 (LURA) and changes to national planning policy and guidance. They will also complement provisions which are expected to be introduced through other primary legislation such as the English Devolution Bill.

Here we provide a brief overview of the Bill as it affects town and country planning development. We also outline the next steps for the Bill, including the opportunity for developers to make submissions on it during the forthcoming Committee Stage.

A brief overview

Parts 2 to 5 of the Bill are of particular interest to those involved with town and country planning development. They include the following measures:

• Planning fees. The Secretary of State may allow local planning authorities to set their own planning fees, which will be ring-fenced, to cover the cost of processing and determining planning applications. The purpose of this measure is to improve the speed and quality of decision-making by increasing the resources available to planning teams.
• Training for local planning authorities in England. The Bill introduces mandatory training for planning committees and sub-committees, including those performing mayoral planning functions, to improve the quality of decision-making.
• Delegation of planning decisions in England. The Bill introduces the "national scheme of delegation" discussed in the December 2024 Planning Reform Working Paper: Planning Committees, empowering the Secretary of State to direct which planning decisions should be made by planning committees and which should be delegated to planning officers. Regulations may also limit the size of planning committees. The aim is to improve consistency between local planning authorities, provide more certainty for developers and make decision-making more effective – in a shorter timeframe with fewer challenges.
• Spatial development strategies. To enhance cross-boundary co-operation and co-ordination, the Bill reintroduces strategic planning in England, aiming for universal coverage of strategic plans across the whole of the country. Spatial development strategies (SDSs) must be prepared by "strategic planning authorities". The Secretary of State may also create new "strategic planning boards" to prepare SDSs for specified combined areas. The SDS will form part of the development plan, and local plans must be in general conformity with the SDS.
• Development and nature recovery. A significant highlight is the introduction of Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) alongside a new Nature Restoration Fund and developer levy. EDPs will detail conservation measures to address potential impacts of development on specified environmental features. These are consistent with the proposals outlined in the government's December 2024 Planning Reform Working Paper: Development and Nature Recovery. The aim is to adopt a strategic rather than site-by-site approach to environmental protection, addressing issues which have adversely impacted development such as nutrient neutrality. EDPs will detail the (evidence-based) conservation measures to address any potential impact of development on the specified environmental features within the relevant area defined in the EDP. Planning applications can then disregard environmental impacts addressed through the EDP, provided that the developer has paid the relevant nature restoration levy, with payment of the levy intending to act as mitigation of that potential impact. Developers would not then be required to further assess those specific issues. Any impacted features or additional areas not captured within the EDP will still need to be assessed following existing procedures.
• Development corporations. To facilitate delivery of large-scale new communities, the Bill enables all types of development corporations to deliver urban extensions and new towns on brownfield and greenfield sites, puts sustainable development, climate change, and good design at the heart of delivery, and standardizes the types of infrastructure that all development corporations can provide.
• Compulsory purchase. To support housing, growth and regeneration, the Bill aims to make it easier for local authorities to use their compulsory purchase powers by enabling electronic service of notices, simplifying newspaper notice requirements, speeding up land vesting, and making changes to the approach to loss payments. The power to remove "hope value" (which has received a mixed reception) can be extended by direction to town/parish and community councils where compulsory purchase powers are to facilitate affordable or social housing. In certain circumstances, authorities will be able to confirm their own CPOs which include directions disregarding hope value.

We have produced a detailed briefing on these measures. If you are interested in receiving a copy, please email [email protected]. For our thoughts on Part 1 of the Bill which relates to nationally significant infrastructure projects, please see the latest issue of our Monthly NSIP Newsletter here.

Next steps – call for evidence

Having had its Second Reading in the House of Commons on 24 March 2025, the Bill has now entered the Committee Stage where a Public Bill Committee will examine the draft legislation clause by clause. The committee will first meet on 24 April 2025 and is expected to report to the House of Commons by 5pm on 22 May 2025 (although it may conclude its considerations earlier than this). During the Committee stage, the committee can consider evidence from interested parties and has issued a call for evidence inviting submissions. This is an opportunity for developers to suggest proposals for improving the Bill, whether by responding to the call for evidence themselves or through professional or industry bodies. Interested parties are advised to submit evidence to the committee as soon as possible. It may be useful to know that amendments are already being submitted to the committee, which can be viewed on the "publications" section of the Bill's website here under the heading "Amendment Paper".

Comment

Planning reform brings no guarantee that the government's housing target will be met, but reform is essential if there is to be any hope of delivering the homes, infrastructure and growth that the country needs. It's therefore welcome that the government is moving fast to make the necessary changes to legislation, policy and guidance in a joined-up, holistic way, adapting the current system where possible rather than sweeping existing structures aside. Importantly, the government appears to be listening to concerns expressed over a number of years by the development industry and trying to implement solutions that will tackle the root causes of systemic problems, for example by ring-fencing planning fees. However, in addition to this Bill and the recent revisions to the NPPF, there is a lot more in the pipeline – additional changes will be made to the NPPF when national development management policies are introduced and we are expecting several more announcements including a consultation on statutory consultees, the English Devolution Bill, implementation of changes to the local plan making process, more updates to planning practice guidance (including on viability) and further news on brownfield passports and new Environmental Outcomes Reports (EORs) pursuant to the LURA.

The scale and pace of change is challenging for everyone in the development industry, particularly local planning authorities, statutory consultees, regulators and the Planning Inspectorate, who have been over-stretched and under-resourced for some time. However, despite these challenges and concerns about how some of the reforms will work, the development industry seems positive about the course the government is taking. On 14 February 2025, the Land, Planning and Development Federation published research results showing that its members intend to submit over 160% more applications between January and June 2025 than between July to December 2024, with a 154% increase in the numbers of homes proposed to be built. The cautious optimism expressed by the British Property Federation in its response to the Bill sums it up well: "There's a lot to welcome in the latest stage of the government's planning reforms … however, it is vital that all of this is adequately resourced in the forthcoming Spending Review."

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