Today sees the second reading of the Planning & Infrastructure Bill, giving MPs their first opportunity to debate and vote on the proposals before the bill goes through the committee stage where the fine detail is negotiated before the final version returns to the House of Commons for final approval (third reading). It then goes through the whole process in the House of Lords before securing Royal Assent and becoming the Planning & Infrastructure Act 2025.
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who is also secretary of state at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, said that there was ‘no time to waste’.
Measures in the bill are designed to speed up planning decisions, remove opportunities for legal challenges and create get-arounds for developers to avoid environmental protection constraints.
Rayner said: “We have no time to waste in bringing the housing crisis we’ve inherited to an end, not only for those struggling to get onto the housing ladder but for the families and young children who are stuck in temporary accommodation.
“That’s why it is so crucial that we get Britain building and the return of the landmark Planning & Infrastructure Bill to Parliament today represents another step forward in achieving this goal.
“But to ensure we can prove the naysayers wrong, and deliver on our plan for change target to build the 1.5 million homes and crucial infrastructure this country needs, we need to make our planning reforms law as quick as possible. This is why today I am urging parliament to back this bill and ensure we can deliver the change so many people want to see.”
Housing & planning minister Matthew Pennycook added: “Our landmark Planning & Infrastructure Bill will fundamentally change how we build things in this country. By streamlining the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure, it will help tackle the housing crisis and raise living standards in every part of the country.
“The bill marks another decisive step toward a planning system that is pro-growth and pro-infrastructure and will deliver on our Plan for Change commitments to build 1.5 million homes and fast-track planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects in this Parliament.”
As previously reported, key measures in the bill include:
- the introduction of a national scheme of delegation to set out which planning applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committee, speeding up the approval process for new development
- establishing a nature restoration fund to allow developers to ‘offset their environmental damage by paying into a central fund, much as Catholic priests of old would sell indulgences to enable worshippers to atone for their sins
- increasing the state’s power over landowners in the compulsory purchase system and keep a check on compensation levels
- giving additional powers to development corporations
- simplifying the consultation process for major infrastructure projects
- limiting the number of times that government decisions on major infrastructure projects can be legally challenged, with only one attempt for cases deemed to be ‘meritless’
- to reduce opposition to the erection of pylons, people living near new electricity transmission infrastructure will get £20 a month off their energy bills – up to £2,500 over 10 years.
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