Planning reforms aim to get Britain building faster
A massive shake up to planning law in England aims to accelerate home building, standardise local plans and alter how local planning committees operate.
The changes, driven by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 and the streamlined 30-month local plan-making system introduced in early 2026 should be good news for developers because they remove some of the obstacles that historically have delayed projects.
Planning ahead
Fewer than a third of local planning authorities have up-to-date local plans. These official documents, created by local councils, set out a framework for future land use, guiding where new homes, jobs and roads should go, and which green spaces to protect.
The idea of regional plans for development was scrapped by the coalition government in 2010, but they are being re-introduced now to support the Burnham government’s commitment to deliver 1.5 million homes this Parliament by creating a faster, more predictable planning system. This includes alterations to the decision-making process.
Changing the rulebook
A national scheme of delegation will set out which types of planning applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committee. This means many more straightforward planning applications will now be decided by local government employees rather than by elected council members.
There will be 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.
Ministers will be able to issue ‘holding directions’ to stop councils refusing planning permission while ministers consider using their ‘call-in’ powers that allow them to take over decision making. Previously, ministers could only issue these holds when councils were set to approve applications.
Accelerating infrastructure projects
Changes that came into effect in July scrap mandatory pre-application consultation requirements for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) – cutting up to 12 months from the planning process and potentially saving industry £1 billion this Parliament.
In their place, developers will receive earlier technical support and meaningful advice from the Planning Inspectorate before applications are submitted, with examinations streamlined to focus on key issues – getting projects through the system faster and with greater certainty.
The Act’s wider reforms are already keeping major NSIP projects moving. New limits on totally without merit legal challenges were recently tested in the Stonestreet Green Solar case, where the court rapidly dismissed a meritless claim – saving a solar project that will power around 42,000 homes from months of unnecessary delay.
Much-needed infrastructure projects, such as data centres, can now opt in to the NSIP regime that allows developers to deliver them through strict, fixed timeframes rather than facing long delays locally.
Councils can now set their own fees to recover costs for NSIP-related work.
Other measures
The Act also aims to cut red tape around environmental measures, which have been seen as a major barrier by some developers. Environmental Delivery Plans will set standardised levels of environmental mitigation needed for certain types and scales of development. Developers will pay a nature restoration levy instead of mitigating impacts on-site. Natural England is using the fund to put in place pro-nature measures at scale to restore natural habitats and wildlife.
Additionally, streamlined Compulsory Purchase Order rules will make it faster and cheaper for public bodies to acquire land.
Not everyone is happy
Charities, such as the RSPB and The Wildlife Trusts, argue that changes to environmental protections and could harm local natural environments.
Describing the Act as “bad news for the natural world”, Matt Browne, Head of Public Affairs at The Wildlife Trusts, said: “It allows effective rules for managing the impacts of development on key nature sites to be replaced by an Environmental Delivery Plan, a substitute geared towards the developer with a reduced focus on avoiding harm to wildlife than before.”
And the Local Government Association urged the Government “to consider the significant period of change and uncertainty for local planning authorities, with devolution, widespread local government reorganisation, the introduction of spatial development strategies (SDS), and changes to plan-making. It is essential that councils, with their local knowledge and expertise, have a key role in shaping the geographies that are right for them and in preparing SDS. Ensuring councils and communities are heard and represented throughout the process will be critical to meeting housing need and delivering the Government’s ambitions.”
How will the changes affect you?
Whether you’re a homeowner, developer, landlord, or other, there’s no doubt these wide-ranging reforms will impact you. Commercial property can be a complex area of the law, particularly during a time of legislative changes, so please don’t hesitate to discuss your concerns with Attwaters’ approachable, business-minded lawyers.
For top-quality legal advice, contact Tina Dobbs, Senior Associate Commercial Property or Salvatore Amico, Partner and Head of Town & Country Planning.
