{"id":42389,"date":"2025-03-14T16:45:35","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T16:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=42389"},"modified":"2025-03-14T16:45:36","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T16:45:36","slug":"government-planning-and-infrastructure-bill-published","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=42389","title":{"rendered":"Government: Planning and Infrastructure Bill published"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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image for illustration: Open Government Licence v3.0<\/sub><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Government has published its \u2018Planning and Infrastructure Bill\u2019, saying it \u2018will see significant measures introduced to speed up planning decisions\u2019, so as the IHBC\u2019s Consultation Group will start its response, members interested in joining should contact IHBC\u2019s Fiona Newton (operations@ihbc.org.uk<\/a>) in the first instance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Government writes:
……<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is a key part of our commitment to rebuild Britain, kickstart economic growth and raise living standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill will support delivery of the government\u2019s hugely ambitious Plan for Change milestones of building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament by speeding up and streamlining planning processes to accelerate the delivery of high-quality infrastructure and housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill will also support delivery of the government\u2019s Clean Power 2030 target by ensuring that key clean energy infrastructure is built as quickly as possible.
…..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Measures<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning Committees<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Housebuilding will be backed by streamlining planning decisions through the introduction of a national scheme of delegation that will set out which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committee, have controls over the size of planning committees to ensure good debate is encouraged with large and unwieldy committees banned, and mandatory training for planning committee members. Councils will also be empowered to set their own planning fees to allow them to cover their costs \u2013 with the stretched system currently running at a deficit of \u00a3362 million in the recent year. This money will be reinvested back into the system to speed it up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nature Restoration Fund<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Nature Restoration Fund will be established to ensure there is a win-win for both the economy and nature by ensuring builders can meet their environmental obligations faster and at a greater scale by pooling contributions to fund larger environmental interventions. These changes will remove time intensive and costly processes, with payments into the fund allowing building to proceed while wider action is taken to secure the environmental improvements we need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compulsory Purchase Reform<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Land needed to drive forward housing or major developments could also be bought more efficiently thanks to reforms to boost economic growth and drive forward local regeneration efforts. The compulsory purchase process \u2013 which allows land to be acquired for projects that are in the public interest \u2013 will be improved to ensure important developments delivering public benefits can progress. The reforms will ensure compensation paid to landowners is not excessive and the process of using directions to remove \u2018hope value\u2019 \u2013 the value attributed to the prospect of planning permission being granted for alternative development \u2013 where justified in the public interest is sped-up. Inspectors, councils or mayors where there are no objections, will take decisions instead of the Secretary of State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Development Corporations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Development Corporations will be strengthened to make it easier to deliver large-scale development \u2013 like the government\u2019s new towns \u2013 and build 1.5 million homes alongside the required infrastructure. They were used in the past to deliver the post-war new towns and play a vital role when the risk or scale of a development is too great for the private sector. Their enhanced powers will help deliver the vision for the next generation of new towns – a new programme of well-designed, beautiful communities with affordable housing, GP surgeries, schools and public transport where people will want to live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Strategic Planning<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill will introduce a system of \u2018strategic planning\u2019 across England known as spatial development strategies, which will help to boost growth by looking across multiple local planning authorities for the most sustainable areas to build and ensuring there is a clear join-up between development needs and infrastructure requirements. These plans will be produced by mayors, or by local authorities in some cases, and will ensure the level of building across the country meets the country\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Bill will ensure a faster NSIP regime that delivers infrastructure projects faster. It will make sure the consultation requirements for projects \u2013 such as windfarms, roads or railway lines \u2013 are streamlined, and ensure the national policies against which infrastructure applications are assessed are updated at least every five years so the government\u2019s priorities are clear. Other changes will be made to the Highways Act and the Transport and Works Act to reduce bureaucracy so transport projects can progress quicker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government will further overhaul the process by which government decisions on major infrastructure projects can be challenged. Meritless cases will only have one \u2013 rather than three \u2013 attempts at legal challenge. Data shows that over half \u2013 58% \u2013 of all decisions on major infrastructure were taken to court, including windfarms in East Anglia which was delayed by over two years as a result of unsuccessful challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean Energy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further changes will make sure approved clean energy projects that help achieve clean power by 2030, including wind and solar power, are prioritised for grid connections. Some projects currently face waits of over 10 years. A \u2018first ready, first connected\u2019 system will replace the flawed \u2018first come, first served\u2019 approach to prioritise projects needed to deliver clean power, unlocking growth with \u00a3200 billion of investment and protecting households from the rollercoaster of fossil fuel markets, while reforming the grid queue will accelerate connections for industrial sites and data centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around twice as much new transmission network infrastructure will be needed by 2030 as has been built in the past decade and Britain\u2019s electricity grid needs a 21st century overhaul to connect the right power in the right places.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Discounts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

People living within 500m of new pylons across Great Britain will get money off their electricity bills up to \u00a32,500 over 10 years, under these plans. Alongside money off bills, separate new guidance will set out how developers should ensure communities hosting transmission infrastructure can benefit, by funding projects like sports clubs, educational programmes, or leisure facilities.   The new community funds guidance means communities could get \u00a3200,000 worth of funding per km of overhead electricity cable in their area, and \u00a3530,000 per substation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would mean an upcoming project like SSEN Transmission\u2019s power line between Tealing and Aberdeenshire could see local communities benefitting from funding worth over \u00a323 million. Developers will closely consult with eligible communities on the funds and how best to spend them, to ensure a fair and consistent approach across Great Britain\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Download the Bill<\/a> and see guidance and factsheets<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

See more background<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

image for illustration: Open Government Licence v3.0 Government has published its \u2018Planning and Infrastructure Bill\u2019, saying it \u2018will see significant measures introduced to speed up planning decisions\u2019, so as the IHBC\u2019s Consultation Group will start its response, members interested in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[6,17,92,30,23,9,116,31,16],"class_list":["post-42389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog","tag-building","tag-climate-change","tag-consultation","tag-environment","tag-expertise","tag-government","tag-infrastructure","tag-nature","tag-planning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42390,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42389\/revisions\/42390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}