NEWS·DECEMBER 2025
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, becoming the most significant piece of planning legislation in a generation and the centrepiece of the government's growth agenda.
The Act rewrites how major projects get consented. It streamlines the nationally significant infrastructure regime, introduces strategic environmental and nature recovery approaches in place of site by site mitigation, strengthens development corporations, and reforms compulsory purchase to make land assembly faster and fairer.
For developers, the most important changes are about certainty and speed. A clearer infrastructure consenting process shortens the riskiest period of any major project. Nature recovery delivered at a strategic level removes one of the most unpredictable sources of delay on housing sites, particularly in areas affected by nutrient neutrality.
For landowners and promoters, reformed compulsory purchase and stronger development corporations change the economics of large scale schemes. Land assembly for new settlements and urban extensions becomes more credible, which matters with the new towns programme gathering pace.
Caveats apply. Much of the Act's impact depends on secondary legislation and on the capacity of local planning authorities, which remain stretched. The gap between legislative ambition and delivery on the ground will be the story of 2026.
Even so, the direction is unmistakable. Ministers have made housing and infrastructure delivery a test of this parliament, and the statutory framework now matches the rhetoric. Sites with strong planning fundamentals will benefit first.
NEWS·DECEMBER 2025
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, becoming the most significant piece of planning legislation in a generation and the centrepiece of the government's growth agenda.
The Act rewrites how major projects get consented. It streamlines the nationally significant infrastructure regime, introduces strategic environmental and nature recovery approaches in place of site by site mitigation, strengthens development corporations, and reforms compulsory purchase to make land assembly faster and fairer.
For developers, the most important changes are about certainty and speed. A clearer infrastructure consenting process shortens the riskiest period of any major project. Nature recovery delivered at a strategic level removes one of the most unpredictable sources of delay on housing sites, particularly in areas affected by nutrient neutrality.
For landowners and promoters, reformed compulsory purchase and stronger development corporations change the economics of large scale schemes. Land assembly for new settlements and urban extensions becomes more credible, which matters with the new towns programme gathering pace.
Caveats apply. Much of the Act's impact depends on secondary legislation and on the capacity of local planning authorities, which remain stretched. The gap between legislative ambition and delivery on the ground will be the story of 2026.
Even so, the direction is unmistakable. Ministers have made housing and infrastructure delivery a test of this parliament, and the statutory framework now matches the rhetoric. Sites with strong planning fundamentals will benefit first.