Starmer pledges to triple major infrastructure development consents this Parliament

In his Plan for change launch last week, prime minister Sir Keir Starmer set out a new government commitment to approve 150 development consent orders for major infrastructure projects over this Parliament. This comes in addition to the Government’s 1.5m new homes ambition, and would triple the number of decisions made on national infrastructure compared with the last Parliament.

Sir Keir said the commitment would be delivered by streamlining the approval process in the forthcoming Planning and Infrastructure Bill.

Chair of the National Infrastructure Commission, Sir John Armitt, welcomed the pledge, but called for pragmatic action to make the ambition a reality. He said: “Signing off 150 development consent orders is a huge undertaking, but essential given the sheer magnitude of transformative infrastructure the country needs: at least 17 major electricity transmission projects to deliver clean power by 2030 and ramped up renewable generation; at least nine major water storage and transfer programmes to keep the taps running; and progress on major projects like East West Rail and Lower Thames Crossing to speed up the country’s transport networks.

“Government’s chances of success will depend on turning its early commitments into sustained action to jump start a lethargic planning system and ensure it becomes a tool for progress rather than an anchor on UK growth. For starters, that means giving the Planning Inspectorate the additional resources it will need to deal with the increased throughput of projects.”

However, nature groups were alarmed by the PM’s description of the planning system as “a blockage” that stops progress, and “a chokehold” on growth, with every approved project “fought tooth and nail… Until you end up with the absurd spectacle of a £100m bat tunnel holding up the country’s single biggest infrastructure project.”

Sir Keir pledged this “nonsense” would stop. “To the nimbys, the regulators, the blockers and bureaucrats, the alliance of naysayers, the people who say: ‘No, Britain can’t do this, we can’t get things done in our country’. We say to them – you no longer have the upper hand. Britain says ‘yes’.”

Wildlife and Countryside Link chief executive, Richard Benwell, posted on X: “@Keir_Starmer, don't make a scapegoat out of bats”. He argued: “Planning isn't a ‘chokehold’ on growth. It's there to ensure sustainable growth. Bats didn't hold up HS2. Politics & mismanagement did. Sad to see @Keir_Starmer's caricature of regulators as blockers. It'd be utter short-termism to ditch planning rules for a quick economic hit.”

Around 30 nature groups have signed a letter to Sir Keir calling for an urgent meeting “to discuss how we can find win-win solutions for nature and sustainable development”.

The Plan for change set out new milestones for the Government’s national missions, and committed Whitehall to mission-led government.