The Planning and Infrastructure Act has become law – with the stated aim of accelerating housing construction across the UK.
The Act will make it harder for legally challenge the delivery of new roads, reservoirs and energy projects, while planning committee members will receive mandatory training.
The pre-application process for infrastructure will be simplified, saving around 12 months on major projects.
Meanwhile development corporations will be given more power to accelerate large scale projects like new towns.
The land acquisition process will be simplified for housing, GP surgeries and schools.
The government said ministers would set out when the reforms come into effect in the “coming weeks and months”.
Reaction
Vicky Evans, UKIMEA Cities, planning and design leader, Arup: “The reintroduction of strategic planning and the strengthened role of development corporations will be pivotal in stimulating the growth and delivery of new communities and critical regional infrastructure, at scale and pace.”
Robert Bruce, planning partner at Freeths LLP, said: “The latest Act proves again the amount of time to make changes through primary legislation.
“National planning policies are likely to be a quicker route for the changes the Country needs, with a total re-write of national planning policies published in the draft National Planning Policy Framework issued for public consultation on 18 December 2025.”
Fergus Charlton, planning partner with national law firm Michelmores, said: “Only some parts of the Act will be immediately effective.
“The remainder will gradually come into effect through a steady stream of government issued statutory instruments. For those parts there is still much work to be done.
“It is in the detail of those statutory instruments that we will be able to evaluate the true effectiveness of the Act’s ability to achieve its objectives.”
Victoria Du Croz, head of planning and partner at Forsters, said, “Speeding up the planning process so that decisions can be made more consistently and efficiently is welcome news, for too long there has been huge uncertainty and ambiguity in the planning system.
“Plan making and delegated decisions can be an effective way to streamline decision making and reduce the huge demand on planning officers’ time, however recent announcements to increase the number of additional planning officers by just 350 is unlikely to make a significant difference to capacity challenges at local authorities.”