The Government has today launched a new consultation on streamlining infrastructure planning which seeks views on changes to guidance, services operated by the public sector, and secondary legislation to streamline the infrastructure planning process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).
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The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) has published a consultation paper setting out the Government’s proposals and seeking views on the following key proposals that support the application process for development consent under the Planning Act 2008:
- new guidance about consultation and engagement following removal of statutory pre-application consultation requirements through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill
- guidance and secondary legislation to support notification and publicity
- guidance to support the acceptance stage for applications
- the use of Initial Assessments of Principal Issues (IAPI) to focus examinations
- guidance for public bodies about their role in examinations
- changes to secondary legislation and regulations related to the examination of applications including compulsory acquisition
- reforms and improvements to pre-application services provided by the Planning Inspectorate and the fast-track process
- supporting pre-application services through effective resourcing of statutory bodies
The proposals relate to England, Wales and Scotland (to a limited extent) only.
The lengthy and detailed consultation document is inviting interested organisations and individual to respond to 48 questions in total. Responses can be made via an via an online survey, by email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or sending written responses to:
Streamlining Infrastructure Planning Consultation, Planning – Infrastructure Division, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Third Floor SE, Fry Building, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DF
Any enquiries about the consultation should be sent to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Organisations responding in writing are asked to make clear which questions they are responding to.
MHCLG IS encouraging responses via the online survey, particularly from organisations with access to online facilities, such as local authorities, representative bodies, and businesses.
“Using the online survey greatly assists our analysis of the responses, enabling more efficient and effective consideration of the issues raised for each question,” MHCLG says.
“Achieving Plan for Change milestone of fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament is going to require NSIP regime firing on all cylinders.”
Commenting in the Ministerial foreword to the consultation, Matthew Pennycook, Minister of State for Housing and Planning says:
“A failure to build enough critical infrastructure, in particular Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), is constraining economic growth and undermining our energy security. Upgrading the country’s major economic infrastructure – including our electricity networks and clean energy sources, roads, public transport links and water supplies – is essential to delivering basic services and growing the economy.
This government has taken decisive action to support the delivery of critical infrastructure projects. We moved quickly last year to lift the ban on onshore wind and expand the scope of the NSIP regime, enabling laboratories, gigafactories and data centres to be directed into the process…..
“Our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, will make it quicker and easier to deliver critical infrastructure projects including through streamlining NSIP consultation requirements, ensuring National Policy Statements are kept up to date, and reducing opportunities for judicial review…..
“The removal of the statutory requirement to consult as part of the pre-application stage for NSIP applications presents an unparalleled opportunity to speed up the delivery of major economic infrastructure. Over this Parliament, the change could result in a cost saving of over £1 billion across the pipeline of projects. By speeding up delivery, increasing capacity and reducing constraint costs, it will also contribute to lower household bills.”
The Minister also says that the Government is interested in whether the Planning Inspectorate’s pre-application and fast-track services should be deployed more flexibly to focus on high priority projects that are particularly important to the successful delivery of government’s infrastructure objectives.
He concludes by saying:
“Achieving our Plan for Change milestone of fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament is going to require the NSIP regime firing on all cylinders.”
Deadline to submit responses to the consultation is 11:59pm on 27 October 2025.
Click here to access the consultation paper
Click here to access the online survey
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