Planning Bill starts its journey through Parliament

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill has been introduced to Parliament.

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

The Bill has 5 overarching objectives:   

• Delivering a faster and more certain consenting process for critical infrastructure – by streamlining Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project consultation requirements, ensuring National Policy Statements are kept up to date, and reducing opportunities for judicial review. 

• Introducing a more strategic approach to nature recovery – via a new centralised Nature Restoration Fund intended to accelerate development while driving nature recovery.

• Improving certainty and decision-making in the planning system – The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said the Bill will ensure that local planning authorities play their proper role in scrutinising development without obstructing it, and that reforms to planning fees will ensure these authorities have the resources they need to deliver an efficient service.

• Unlocking land and securing public value for large-scale investment – by ensuring that compensation paid to landowners through the compulsory purchase order process is fair but not excessive, and that development corporations can operate effectively.

• Introducing effective new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning – by implementing 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 Bill has elicited mixed reaction. Most welcome the intention, but some say the shake-up doesn’t go far enough, while others stress the need for nature and local communities to have a meaningful role.

The Wildlife and Countryside Link coalition said the proposals have the potential to deliver for nature and development hand in hand. To ensure this, it would like to see the Bill strengthened by: including a legal duty to make sure that all planning decisions help to deliver climate and nature targets; stronger protection for irreplaceable wild spaces — such as chalk streams, peatlands and ancient woodlands — and more places given the protections needed to support nature’s recovery; and development that is “wilder by design, with a new chapter in Building Regulations to ensure developments are packed with green and blue spaces and habitats including more bee bricks and bird boxes, sustainable drainage and native planting”.