The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has announced planning reforms it says will cut pre-application time by up to a year and save developers £1 billion on major infrastructure projects.
Delivered through the Planning and Infrastructure Act, the changes set to come into effect later this month will scrap mandatory pre-application consultation requirements for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) in favour of earlier technical support and “meaningful advice” from the Planning Inspectorate before applications are submitted.
Examinations will be streamlined “to focus on the key issues that matter”, the MHCLG said in a statement, “getting projects through the system faster and with greater certainty.”
Housing secretary Steve Reed said: “This government is determined to make the UK a world leader in building infrastructure.
“Our reforms will get work started quicker on wind farms, solar panels and transport links to connect our communities and grow our economy.”
Under the reforms, infrastructure such as data centres can now opt in to the NSIP regime, which allows developers to deliver projects through strict, fixed timeframes and avoid local planning delays.
As part of a wider package of reforms already underway, local authorities can now set their own fees to recover costs for NSIP-related work and bid for up to £1 million through round three of the Innovation and Capacity Fund.
Last year, examining authorities made 20 recommendations to ministers on NSIPs – an 18% increase compared to the previous year.
Changes set out in the government’s consultation response on NSIP reforms include new guidance on the pre-application period to support the removal of statutory consultation, and re-designing services provided by the Planning Inspectorate to support developers during pre-application with earlier technical input and meaningful advice from inspectors.
The earlier submission of Local Impact Reports (LIRs) is also encouraged, including draft LIRs, alongside relevant representations to inform the examining authority of principal issues and focus on key local impacts.
But Fergus Charlton, planning partner with national law firm Michelmores, said the announcement is “a bad news sandwich without the good news filling”.
He explained: “Putting cuts to infrastructure funding to one-side, cutting the ability of the public at large and more importantly the local inhabitants (with their special connections to the land and knowledge of their milieu) to inform the design of nationally important infrastructure will further disenfranchise them from the planning process leading to embedded resentment to the system as a whole and the proposed development in particular.
“The existing consultation requirements for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) does place a burden on the developer, but it helps strike a fair balance for the local community engaging in an infrastructure planning system that greatly favours the developer.”
