Planning and Infrastructure Bill: compulsory purchase reform and national delegation scheme to be introduced

Compulsory purchase reform 

Land needed to drive forward housing or major development could be bought “more efficiently” through reforms to the compulsory purchase process. 

The process allows land to be acquired for projects that are in the public interest. 

The government said the reforms will ensure compensation paid to landowners is “not excessive”, while the process of using directions to remove hope value – “where justified in the public interest” – will be sped up.

Planning committees

The bill will include measures to streamline planning decisions through the introduction of a national scheme of delegation. 

The scheme will set out which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to a planning committee.

It will introduce controls over the size of a planning committee to ensure “good debate is encouraged”, with “large and unwieldy committees” banned and mandatory training for planning committee members. 

Councils will also be able to set their own planning fees to allow them to cover their costs, the government said, with the system currently running at a deficit of £362m in the recent year. 

This money will be reinvested back into the system to speed it up, it said. 

Development corporations 

The bill will include measures to strengthen development corporations to make it easier to deliver large-scale development, such as the government’s new towns.

Strategic planning

The bill will introduce a system of strategic planning across England, known as spatial development strategies. 

MHCLG said these will help to boost growth by looking across multiple local planning authorities for the most sustainable areas to build and by ensuring there is a “clear join-up” between development needs and infrastructure requirements. 

The plans will be produced by mayors, or by councils in some cases.

Nature restoration fund

A nature restoration fund to ensure builders can meet their environmental obligations “faster and at a greater scale” by pooling contributions to fund larger environmental interventions.

These changes will remove time intensive and costly processes, with payments into the fund allowing building to proceed while wider action is taken to secure the environmental improvements needed, MHCLG said. 

National significant infrastructure projects 

The government said the bill will ensure a faster national significant infrastructure project regime that delivers infrastructure projects faster. 

It will overhaul the process by which government decisions on major infrastructure projects can be challenged. “Meritless” cases will only have one – rather than three – attempts at legal challenge. 

Other measures include ensuring approved energy projects that help achieve clean power by 2030 are prioritised for grid connections and offering people living within 500m of new pylons money off their electricity bills up to £2,500 over 10 years.

The bill will also allow forestry authorities in England and Wales, including the Forestry Commission, to bring forward development proposals on the land they manage relating to the generation of electricity from renewable sources. They will then be able to sell the resulting electricity.

Message from the minister

Deputy prime minister and housing Angela Rayner said: “We’re creating the biggest building boom in a generation – as a major step forward in getting Britain building again and unleashing economic growth in every corner of the country, by lifting the bureaucratic burden which has been holding back developments for too long.

“The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes, and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect bill payers.

“It will help us to deliver the 1.5 million homes we have committed to so we can tackle the housing crisis we have inherited head on – not only for people desperate to buy a home, but for the families and young children stuck in temporary accommodation and in need of a safe, secure roof over their heads.

“These reforms are at the heart of our plan for change, ensuring we are backing the builders, taking on the blockers, and delivering the homes and infrastructure this country so badly needs.”

This bill comes after MHCLG announced it will consult this spring on the impact of removing Sport England, the Theatres Trust and The Gardens Trust from the list of statutory consultees.