Planning and Infrastructure Bill - Updated July 2025

Latest element of the Government Planning reforms

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill as its title implies covers a number of topics encompassing modifying existing legislation as well as new legislation.

Changes Proposed to the Bill July 2025

Considerable concern has been raised at the provisons to create a Nature Restoration Fund. Simplistically this allowed developers to contribute into a fund and that couls be applied at considerable distance from a site.  The Government has now outlined new provisions for Natural England under the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF), which will be set up as part of the Bill. ensuring conservation measures prioritise local action unless broader network measures offer greater environmental benefit, as supported by scientific evidence. It clarifies requirements to protect site coherence and consider conservation objectives, embeds the mitigation hierarchy and favourable conservation status, and mandates adherence to key environmental principles. The changes emphasise transparency, accountability, and collaboration with stakeholders to deliver effective nature recovery alongside sustainable development.  See proposed chnages in detail at link at foot of post.

Bill Proposals

The Bill proposes a significant series of changes to the planning system, as part of a desire to move England to a system that is more familiar on the continent with more emphasis on creating wider areas of Spatial/Zonal Plans agreed with local communities, and planning officer managing implementation against these Spatial and Zonal policies.

The Government identifies sustained economic growth is the only route to delivering the improved prosperity the country needs and the higher living standards the population deserve. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, currently going through Parliament, is claimed to be a central part of the government’s plan to get Britain building again and deliver economic growth.

The Bill will speed up and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure, supporting delivery of the government’s Plan for Change milestones of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England and fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament. It will also support delivery of the government’s Clean Power 2030 target by ensuring that key clean energy projects are built as quickly as possible. 

This bill is the latest in a series of changes introduced by the Government which also interact with the proposed changes to the Local Government system e.g. the Planning and Infrastrucutre bill sets up the legal structure for Spatial Development Strategies which are enabled by Local Government Re-organisation into larger more cohesive units.

Five Objectives   

1. Delivering a faster and more certain consenting process for critical infrastructure: A failure to build enough critical infrastructure, in particular Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), is constraining economic growth and undermining our energy security. Upgrading the country’s major economic infrastructure – including our electricity networks and clean energy sources, roads, public transport links and water supplies – is essential to delivering basic services and growing the economy. The Bill will make it quicker and easier to deliver critical infrastructure projects including through streamlining NSIP consultation requirements, ensuring National Policy Statements are kept up to date, and reducing opportunities for judicial review.
2. Introducing a more strategic approach to nature recovery: When it comes to development and the environment, we know we can do better than the status quo, which too often sees both sustainable housebuilding and nature recovery stall. Instead of environmental protections being seen as a barrier to growth, we want to unlock a win-win for the economy and for nature. The Bill will introduce a new Nature Restoration Fund that will unlock and accelerate development while going beyond simply offsetting harm to unlock the positive impact development can have in driving nature recovery.
3. Improving certainty and decision-making in the planning system: Decisions about what to build and where should be shaped by local communities and reflect the views of local residents. However, in exercising local democratic oversight, it is vital that planning committees operate as effectively as possible. The Bill will ensure that they play their proper role in scrutinising development without obstructing it, whilst maximising the use of experienced professional planners.
4. Unlocking land and securing public value for large scale investment: The government is determined to enable more effective land assembly by public sector bodies, speed up site delivery, and deliver housing, infrastructure, amenity, and transport benefits in the public interest. To unlock more sites for development, the Bill will ensure that compensation paid to landowners through the compulsory purchase order process is fair but not excessive, and that development corporations can operate effectively.
5. Introducing effective new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning: We cannot meet housing need without planning for growth on a larger than local scale. The Bill implement strategic planning at a sub-regional level through the production of Spatial Development Strategies to facilitate effective cross-boundary working to address development and infrastructure needs.

The link below is to a guide produced to the Guide by Ministry of Housing communiites and Local Government (MHCLG).

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