Bob Pritchard is a senior professional support lawyer and planning specialist at Shoosmiths
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill had its second reading on 24 March 2025. Rather than starting from scratch with a new planning system (which would result in more uncertainty and delay), the Bill involves what the housing minister has characterised as a ‘radical evolution’ of the current system. Here are some key themes to take away:
Spatial Planning as a Tool for Growth
There is a welcome return of strategic planning in England. The aim is for all of England to be covered by strategic plans in the form of a Spatial Development Strategy (SDS) ensuring that authorities cooperate to deliver housing and infrastructure at a ‘wider than local’ level. The resurgence of spatial planning will enable more informed decisions to be made on housing supply, as housing markets do not coincide with administrative boundaries. However, to achieve full SDS coverage, it will be necessary to navigate the complex system of local government in England.
A Strategic Approach to Nature Restoration
Turning to nature recovery and protected habitats and species, the Bill signals a move away from a requirement for developers to secure site-specific environmental improvements to unlock developments to a system offering the option of payments into a centralised Nature Restoration Fund. This will provide the funding for Natural England (or another designated body) to bring forward Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) identifying strategic action to address development impacts on protected sites or species. Where an EDP is in place and a developer utilises it, it will obviate the need to deliver project-specific interventions and avoid development being delayed pending mitigation being put in place. In addition to simplifying and speeding up the consenting process, this approach offers the prospect of achieving more ‘bang for the buck’ by concentrating resources on strategic interventions. However, there will be a continued tension between achieving sustainable growth and facilitating nature recovery in what is one of the most nature depleted countries in the world.
Speed and Consistency in Local Decision Making
There are several ‘top down’ measures aimed at streamlining decision making at local authority level. These include the introduction of a national scheme of delegation mandating which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to a planning committee. The Bill also proposes limits to the size of committees. Mandatory training for planning committee members aims to ensure that decisions are informed by a proper understanding of planning law and policy. In contrast to a series of measures which could be characterised as constraining local democracy, councils will be given the power to set their own planning fees.
Development Corporations Modernised
The Bill aims to support the delivery of new towns and other large-scale development by strengthening and updating the framework for development corporations. The most recent New Towns Act dates to 1981 and inevitably failed to reflect important policy requirements that are now hard-wired into the planning system. The Bill addresses this by ensuring that development corporations must aim to contribute to sustainable development and climate change mitigation and adaption.
Compulsory Purchase Reformed
In its Guide to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, the government encourages authorities to make greater use of their compulsory purchase (CPO) powers to support the delivery of housing, growth and regeneration of their areas. This will commonly involve land acquisition strategies agreed with developer partners where CPO will feature as a ‘last resort’ measure. The Bill includes measures to ‘fine tune’ the current CPO process. Procedural changes include allowing statutory notices to be delivered electronically, simplifying information required to be included in newspaper notices, inspectors being given delegated powers to confirm New Towns Act CPOs and measures aimed at ensuring the vesting of land is brought forward more expeditiously. When it comes to CPO compensation the Bill extends the recently introduced (and controversial) power to remove ‘hope value’ attributed to the prospect of planning permissions by direction to town/parish and community councils where they are using CPO powers to facilitate affordable or social housing provision.
Accelerating Infrastructure Delivery
The Bill aims to tackle the delays in delivering major infrastructure schemes. The approach includes streamlining the consultation process and cutting back the opportunities to pursue High Court challenges. However, the prospect of projects being submitted for examination more expeditiously will inevitably result in additional calls on the planning inspectorate (PINs), which (as acknowledged by the previous administration) has a role at the heart of the consenting process.[2] These demands will coincide with PINs being required to dedicate more time and resources to measures aimed at accelerating the local plan process, including supporting the proposed gateway assessment system.
Final Thoughts
In terms of omissions from the Bill, the failure to include a comprehensive mechanism to achieve amendments to planning consents could be seen as a missed opportunity. Also, in relation to infrastructure, there are no measures aimed at improving the pre-application process, which would help to resolve issues ahead of an examination and save PINs time and resource.
Finally, along with the recent recasting of the NPPF the Bill’s key purpose is to speed up and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure. Just how effective it will be in achieving the challenging targets that the government has set itself will become apparent in the next few years.
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