Planning and Infrastructure Act comes into law

Reforms to planning law, impacting committee decision making processes, strategic regional development and the environment have been introduced with one of the government’s flagship new Acts coming into force.

The Planning and Infrastructure Act, which has been created to speed up the processes behind delivering housing and vital infrastructure, has come into force with immediate effect, ushering in a raft of changes that will impact developers and landowners.

Fred Quartermain, Partner in Thrings’ Planning and Environment team, takes a look at the new legislation and the points you need to know.

Background

Updating the law is a key part in the government’s approach to overcoming a number of the challenges being faced in the planning system, with decisions taking too long, major infrastructure projects facing delay and uncertainty, and environmental requirements becoming increasingly complex and fragmented, detracting from their importance.

The Act is intended to streamline decision-making, improve resourcing within planning authorities and create a more strategic approach to growth and environmental mitigation.

In a one-two punch to planning’s issues, the government also recently unveiled its new draft National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), a radical overhaul that proposes much clearer wording, less tolerance of under-delivery and more support for SME developers.

What is changing?

The Act introduces a package of reforms across plan-making, decision-taking and infrastructure delivery, including:

• Faster and more strategic planning - New powers to enable groups of local authorities to introduce strategic spatial development strategies, aimed at better aligning housing and infrastructure planning across functional economic areas. Greater emphasis will also be given on delegated decision-making, reducing the number of applications that must go to committee and helping to speed up determinations.
• Better resourcing of planning authorities - Local planning authorities can set planning application fees locally, provided additional income is reinvested into the planning service. New mechanisms will also support statutory consultees.
• Reform of nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) - Streamlined consultation and examination processes for major infrastructure schemes, with updated and more regularly reviewed National Policy Statements and measures to reduce repeated legal challenges that delay projects without adding value.
• A new approach to environmental mitigation - Introduction of Environmental Delivery Plans and a Nature Restoration Fund, allowing developers to make strategic contributions to address environmental impacts rather than relying on site-by-site mitigation. The Act also has a particular focus on unlocking development currently stalled by issues such as nutrient neutrality.
• Supporting delivery at scale - Enhanced powers for development corporations, government-established organisations designed to help develop specific areas, including to support new settlements and large-scale regeneration. The Act also seeks to enable easier delivery of essential infrastructure such as reservoirs and electricity transmission projects.

What isn’t changing?

As with any new legislation, amendments made to the original draft Bill meant some features have not made the final cut.

This includes softening proposals to further restrict access to judicial review. The final act seeks to reduce delay from unmerited challenges, but without the more controversial limits that were initially put forward.

Some of the more prescriptive detail around how environmental schemes would operate were also removed from the primary legislation. The resulting greater reliance on secondary legislation and guidance does provide greater flexibility but could allow some uncertainty for developers to creep back in over the short-term.

What happens next?

While much of the Act came into force with it becoming law, many of its provisions will require secondary legislation and implementation guidance before they can be fully realised. The government has indicated that a timetable for this will be landing in the coming months.

In the meantime, there are steps developers and landowners could be taking now to lessen any impact on their work:

• Review existing portfolios to identify sites that may benefit from strategic mitigation or faster decision-making under the new regime.
• Engage early with local authorities, particularly where strategic planning or development corporation powers may be introduced.
• Build flexibility into planning strategies, recognising that new fee structures, processes and environmental requirements will emerge over time.
• Monitor secondary legislation closely, as this will contain the detail that determines how the Act operates in practice.

Fred Quartermain, Partner in Thrings’ Planning and Environment team, said: “This new legislation signals a clear shift towards delivery and pragmatism and will hopefully go some way to oust many of the longstanding issues, imbalances and uncertainties in the planning system.

“While many of the changes will take time to come into force, developers and landowners who start planning now will be best placed to benefit as the new framework takes shape. Taking early advice will be key to managing risk and taking advantage of new opportunities as the system beds in and the secondary legislation and guidance are introduced.”

Thrings’ Planning and Environment lawyers have extensive experience in navigating complex local and national planning policy legislation and has successfully supported commercial and residential applications through the approval and appeal processes. To find out more and for advice on your development proposals, please do get in touch.