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Last edited 26 Nov 2025

A brief outline of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, with terms, and amendments

1 Context
2 Terms, adjustments and amendments
- 2.1 Key terms and adjustments
- 2.2 Key amendments to the Bill
3 The Bill in brief
4 Related articles on Designing Buildings

[edit] Context

[edit] Nature of the Bill

The first reading of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB) was in March 2025, after a number on amendments the final reading of the Bill occurred on 24 November, 2025 with the date of Royal Assent to be announced. The long title of the PIB is described as "A Bill to make provision about infrastructure; to make provision about town and country planning; to make provision for a scheme, administered by Natural England, for a nature restoration levy payable by developers; to make provision about development corporations; to make provision about the compulsory purchase of land; to make provision about environmental outcomes reports; and for connected purposes."

The PIB underpins the government’s strategy to accelerate housing and infrastructure delivery by streamlining planning processes, enabling 1.5 million new homes, fast-tracking major infrastructure decisions, and supporting the Clean Power 2030 target through quicker approval of key clean-energy projects. It marks another major milestone in the governments reform programme, and follows significant reforms to the planning system, including the publication of the revised, pro-growth NPPF in December 2024.

[edit] Support and concern

Not long before completion of the final reading of the PIB, on 16 November, 2025 the Sixth Report of Session 2024–26 HC 439 of the Environmental Audit Committee was published: Environmental sustainability and housing growth. In this report it was indicated that the PIB "aims to reform the planning system in England and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure. The Bill’s scope extends beyond housing, addressing matters such as transport infrastructure and improvements to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime, to enhance project efficiency. It will also introduce the Nature Restoration Fund and Environmental Delivery Plans, which aim to help housing developers meet their environmental obligations while achieving property delivery targets."

The same report argued that England can meet its housing target without sacrificing nature or climate goals, but only if major gaps in planning policy, environmental safeguards, carbon regulation, and cross-government coordination are fixed. It warned that current reforms risk weakening protections, highlighting the need to prioritise retrofit over carbon-intensive new build, and stressing that serious skills shortages threaten effective delivery. Overall, it concluded that both housing and environmental objectives remain achievable but require stronger governance, better data, and urgent action on its recommended reforms. See also Environmental Audit Committee: Environmental sustainability and housing growth.

[edit] Government objectives

Delivering a faster and more certain consenting process for critical infrastructure – The Bill streamlines NSIP processes, updates policy frameworks, and limits legal delays to speed up delivery of major infrastructure and clean-energy projects.
Introducing a more strategic approach to nature recovery – It creates a Nature Restoration Fund to enable development while driving nature recovery beyond basic mitigation.
Improving certainty and decision-making in the planning system – The Bill strengthens planning committees, boosts professional planner capacity, and improves funding so decisions are faster and more consistent.
Unlocking land and securing public value for large scale investment – It reforms compulsory purchase and strengthens development corporations to assemble land efficiently and deliver public-interest development.
Introducing effective new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning – The Bill enables sub-regional Spatial Development Strategies to coordinate housing and infrastructure needs across local authority boundaries.

[edit] Terms, adjustments and amendments

[edit] Key terms and adjustments

Environmental Delivery Plans (EDP): To provide a strategic, landscape-scale approach to offsetting and mitigating the environmental impacts of development, allowing developers to contribute to a central fund managed by Natural England to deliver coordinated conservation measures.

Environmental Development Plans (EDP):They consist of a package of conservation measures that aim to offset and address the environmental impacts of development. Unlike current approaches, that assess impacts on a site-by-site basis, EDPs apply to broader geographical areas, aiming to enable more strategic environmental planning.

Nature Restoration Fund (NRF): A central fund into which developers can pay rather than mitigate on‑site, and Natural England will be responsible for delivery.

Nature Recovery Network (NRN): a growing, connected system of wildlife-rich habitats that supports species recovery while delivering wider environmental benefits such as carbon capture, improved water quality, natural flood management, and recreational opportunities, integrating protected sites, other key habitats, and coordinated landscape or catchment-scale recovery areas.

Mitigation hierarchy: A recap of the traditional mitigation hierarchy is given (avoid → minimise → restore → compensate), then it is explained how the Bill proposes a more flexible application, removing the mandatory site specific assessments.

Overall improvement test: where a delivery body must show an improvement before an EDP is approved, wording has been adjusted from as it appears in the existing habitat regulations "the government has always been clear that it is one of the key environmental safeguards in the new system and, as such, it is vital that there is confidence in its operation."

Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG): A policy requiring a 10% net gain in biodiversity has been adjusted, in terms of value for some developments where early‑stage problems are identified. Flexibility towards shorter and simpler over longer‑term.

Environmental Outcomes Reports (EOR): Potential replacement for EU-derived Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA) with streamlined, outcomes-focused Environmental Outcomes Reports, enabling faster housing and infrastructure delivery while ensuring strategic environmental protection and nature recovery.

Environmental Principles Policy Statement EPPS: The Environment Act 2021, established five legal environmental principles: Integration (embedding environmental protection in policy), Prevention (aiming to avoid environmental harm), Rectification at Source (addressing damage at its origin), Polluter Pays (making those responsible for pollution bear its costs), and the Precautionary Principle (acting to prevent serious or irreversible harm even without scientific certainty).

Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS): Government initiatives supporting sustainable food production while enhancing the natural environment, comprising the Sustainable Farming Incentive (rewarding farmers for ongoing sustainable practices), Countryside Stewardship (funding targeted actions for specific habitats or features), and Landscape Recovery (supporting bespoke, long-term, large-scale environmental projects).

Local Nature Recovery Strategies (LNRS): Statutory, area-specific plans in England that map habitats and set biodiversity priorities to guide coordinated, evidence-based actions for nature recovery and environmental improvement.

[edit] Key amendments to the Bill

Government amendments made to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill during its Lords Committee Stage were:

Nature Restoration Fund (EDPs): The government refined how Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs) work: it introduced clearer requirements for the overall improvement test (which assesses whether environmental outcomes are actually better) and added provisions for monitoring, remedial action, and transparency in how EDPs are amended or enforced.

Conservation Delivery & Evidence: Obligations for conservation delivery strengthened: EDPs must be backed by evidence, and there is more emphasis on delivering actual conservation outcomes rather than just spending money.

Powers for Natural England & Implementation: New or clarified powers added to enable Natural England (the government’s nature adviser) to play a stronger, more active role: the amendments include how it can deliver conservation measures, supervise the use of levy funds, and intervene when nature targets are missed.

Water Projects Clause: New clause specifically about projects related to water added to address how water-related infrastructure (such as reservoirs) should be treated, including how their environmental impacts are managed.

NSIP: There were procedural changes to how NSIPs are handled: for example, improving the way grid-connection projects are consented, streamlining pre-application surveying, and removing some distinctions in amendment processes to make modifications easier. House of Commons Library

Heritage Considerations in Transport Orders: Requirement that Transport Works Act Orders now explicitly “have regard” to heritage, so infrastructure development must more strongly consider listed buildings and historically important sites.

Delay & Legal Challenge: Recognition that legal challenges can delay permissions after consent is granted, so provision added to take this into account in assessment, to avoid planning permissions expiring simply because of court cases.

[edit] The Bill in brief

[edit] Part 1: Infrastructure

[edit] Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) reform

The government is introducing targeted NSIP reforms—shaped by extensive stakeholder feedback—to update national policy more easily, streamline consultations, increase flexibility, and limit unmerited judicial reviews, all with the aim of speeding up and bringing greater certainty to major infrastructure consenting.

National policy statement updates – The Bill requires NPSs to be updated every five years and introduces a streamlined parliamentary process for certain interim changes.
Flexibility on consenting routes – The Secretary of State can now direct projects out of the NSIP regime to alternative consenting routes when more suitable.
Streamlining consultation – Consultation requirements are simplified with shorter reports, clearer guidance, selective notification, and measures to reduce over-cautious or disproportionate pre-application engagement.
Duty on statutory consultees – Statutory consultees and local authorities must follow guidance, focus on key disagreements early, and engage proactively throughout the process.
Judicial review changes – The Bill removes the paper permission stage and allows outright rejection of meritless judicial review cases to reduce delays and unnecessary legal challenges.

[edit] Electrical infrastructure

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduces major reforms to electricity infrastructure, including replacing the “first come, first served” grid connection system with a “first ready, first connected” approach, giving the Secretary of State and Ofgem powers to prioritise projects strategically. In Scotland, consenting is streamlined through mandatory pre-application engagement, improved objection and appeal processes, statutory variation powers, and fees for applications and way leaves. The Bill also establishes a cap-and-floor scheme for long-duration electricity storage to support investment, renewables integration, and decarbonisation, and extends the offshore wind commissioning period from 18 to 27 months. It provides consumer benefits via mandatory bill discounts for communities near transmission projects and allows forestry authorities in England and Wales to use forestry land for renewable electricity generation, transmission, storage, and supply, aligning infrastructure delivery with clean energy and climate targets.

[edit] Transport infrastructure

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill reforms the Highways Act 1980 and Transport and Works Act 1992 to streamline delivery of road, rail, tram, guided transport, and inland waterway projects by enabling temporary land possession, cost recovery for consultees, statutory decision deadlines, simplified authorisations, and clearer legislative guidance. It modernises Harbour Revision Order fees under the Harbours Act 1964 to allow flexible, method-based cost recovery, enhancing efficiency and resource planning. Additionally, the Bill accelerates the rollout of electric vehicle charging infrastructure by permitting street works without licences, reducing costs and speeding up installation of public charge points, supporting the transition to a low-carbon transport network.

[edit] Part 2: Planning

Sub-delegation of planning fees: The Bill allows local authorities to set planning application fees based on actual costs, ensures the income is retained for planning services, and gives the Secretary of State powers to prevent excessive or unjustified fee increases.

Planning committee reforms: The Bill establishes a national delegation scheme for planning decisions, sets rules on committee size, and requires mandatory training for planning committee members to ensure consistent, informed decision-making across England.

Spatial development strategies: The Bill introduces a system of cross-boundary strategic planning across England through Spatial Development Strategies, requiring relevant local authorities to prepare SDSs or establish strategic planning boards, ensuring local plans align with wider regional growth and housing needs.

[edit] Part 3: Development and nature recovery

The current approach to environmental mitigation for development often requires bespoke, project-level assessments and interventions, which can delay housing delivery and place high administrative burdens on developers, local authorities, and limited specialist resources like ecologists. This system can also lead to suboptimal environmental outcomes, as mitigation measures are applied narrowly rather than strategically, and can force housing to be relocated, increasing infrastructure pressures in certain areas.

To address these issues, the Bill establishes the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) and Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs), allowing Natural England or another designated body to implement strategic mitigation and nature recovery actions. Developers using an EDP would no longer need to undertake their own project-specific assessments for covered issues, promoting a more coordinated, efficient, and effective approach that both accelerates housing delivery and supports broader environmental goals.

[edit] Part 4. Development corporations

Boosting housing supply in England requires not only planning reform but also the delivery of large-scale new communities and New Towns. Development corporations, as statutory bodies tasked with urban development and regeneration, are key to managing complex, large-scale projects that integrate housing, infrastructure, and economic growth.

The Bill strengthens development corporations by providing greater flexibility over the areas they can operate in, ensuring they consider sustainable development and climate adaptation, and updating the types of infrastructure they can deliver, including heat networks. It also improves collaboration with local transport authorities through a new duty to cooperate, allowing development corporations to exercise transport planning functions where appropriate, ensuring new communities are effectively integrated into wider spatial plans.

[edit] Part 5: Compulsory purchase

The government aims to make more effective use of land for housing, infrastructure, and regeneration by reforming the compulsory purchase process, which is often delayed by complex procedures and inflated compensation expectations. These delays increase costs and slow delivery of critical projects such as homes, schools, and transport links.

The Bill streamlines the CPO process and land compensation rules by allowing electronic notices, simplifying newspaper notices, delegating decisions, accelerating land vesting, and updating loss payments. It also extends powers to remove “hope value” from land compensation calculations to town, parish, and community councils using CPOs for affordable or social housing, helping speed up land assembly and reduce costs for public sector-led development.