Streamlining Infrastructure Planning: Implementation Plan

Introduction

The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (PIA 2025) received Royal Assent in December 2025. A key part of this Act is the reforms to infrastructure planning in Part 1, introducing major changes to the Development Consent Order planning process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).

The PIA 2025 focuses on tackling the biggest delays to the planning process for nationally significant infrastructure. The time taken to prepare an application has doubled from one to two years since the regime’s inception. Once consent is granted, delivery is often then held up by judicial reviews and further delays are involved in approving subsequent changes to schemes where needed.

The PIA 2025 makes targeted changes to each stage of the NSIP process under the Planning Act 2008 (Planning Act) to support swifter delivery of infrastructure:

• to ensure our strategic infrastructure priorities are better reflected in wider planning policy, the PIA 2025 requires National Policy Statements (NPSs) to be updated at least every five years. It also introduces a new streamlined procedure for changes to NPSs which reflect the government’s broader planning policies
• to ensure the pre-application stage focuses on enhancing the quality of applications rather than gold-plating and risk aversion, the PIA 2025 amends the Planning Act so that it:
  • removes the statutory requirement to consult on proposed applications for DCOs prior to their submission – so that developers will be able to develop bespoke and flexible approaches, no longer avoiding making desirable changes out of the fear of needing to re-consult to avoid a legal challenge
  • creates a more targeted test for proposed DCO applications to be accepted into the NSIP regime and places a new duty on government to publish its reasoning if an application is not accepted at the acceptance stage
  • provides for guidance that will set out best practice for applicants during pre-application
• to ensure that examinations of DCO applications are more focused, the PIA 2025 amends the Planning Act to require that Examining Authorities make procedural decisions about examinations in the light of their Initial Assessment of Principal Issues (IAPI) (in addition to the existing requirement to make these decisions in the light of the discussion at the preliminary meeting)
• to speed up the latter stages of the NSIP process, the PIA 2025 amends the Planning Act to:
  • reduce the scope for delays caused by judicial review by removing the right to appeal in cases judges deemed to be ‘totally without merit’
  • pave the way for government to streamline and improve the process by which applicants may apply for post-consent changes to DCOs in the future

Other changes to the Planning Act under the PIA 2025 to support faster infrastructure delivery include:

• enabling certain development to be directed out of the NSIP regime into an appropriate alternative consenting route, such as the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 regime
• enabling applicants to follow a simpler and faster process when needing to access private land for surveys, in line with similar powers in other parts of the planning system

Streamlining the planning of major infrastructure projects will require more than making changes to primary legislation. In September 2025, the government launched a consultation seeking views on implementing the PIA 2025 reforms alongside further changes to guidance, secondary legislation and the services provided by the Planning Inspectorate to support a more streamlined system.

This consultation closed on 27 October 2025. The responses are wide ranging and provide a robust evidence base to inform the next stage of policy development. We will publish the government response in the coming weeks.

We are grateful for the constructive way in which stakeholders have worked with government so far and look forward to continuing this as we deliver our reforms.

Our implementation plans

Implementing our comprehensive legislative and non-legislative reform package as swiftly as possible is essential to ensuring that major infrastructure projects can benefit within this Parliament.

Where our changes do not require complex secondary legislation and are not reliant on a response to our consultation in September 2025, we will act as soon as possible. New requirements for reviewing NPSs, and parliamentary processes relating to these (sections 1 and 2 of the PIA 2025), have already been commenced. To support these changes, government will publish updated guidance, principally for relevant government departments but also for the benefit of applicants, statutory bodies, other interested parties and the general public. The guidance will advise on the process for reviewing and updating existing NPSs, as well as outlining the requirements of the transitional period to bring all NPSs into the new cycle of required updates.

Our other reforms are more interlinked, and reliant on substantive changes to secondary legislation and guidance. We will set out our vision for the future of infrastructure planning in our government response to the Streamlining Infrastructure Planning consultation. To provide certainty for applicants, we will also seek to publish critical aspects of our new guidance relating to pre-application, the acceptance test, and content of a DCO application before it comes into effect.

In summer, we plan to lay the relevant secondary legislation before Parliament and publish revised NSIP guidance reflecting the PIA 2025 reforms.

This section provides further background on our approach to:

• the government’s response to the consultation on implementing NSIP reforms
• the publication of revised guidance
• updating secondary legislation
• transitional arrangements and Planning Inspectorate advice and services

Government response to the consultation

We expect to publish the government response in the coming weeks.

The government response will set out the government’s overarching vision for the operation of the reformed NSIP regime and our policy direction for major changes to pre-application, acceptance and examination. It will also outline our initial conclusions on changes to services provided by the Planning Inspectorate at pre-application, and to the fast-track process, alongside how we will support capacity and capability in local authorities. Chapters will be thematic, with summaries of the responses received to specific questions included.

Updating guidance

As noted above, we will publish new guidance on the process for reviewing and updating NPSs shortly.

In order to comply with the new requirement under section 50 of the Planning Act to issue best practice guidance about the steps applicants might take as they prepare DCO applications, we plan to replace existing guidance with new guidance on pre-application, acceptance, and content of a DCO application. Given the importance of this guidance to support the removal of the statutory requirement to consult at the pre-application stage, we plan to publish this guidance before it comes into effect, prior to broader guidance being updated and the legislative changes currently due to be made in summer. Revised guidance should not be relied on until the Planning Act amendments and secondary legislation come into effect, and this will be made clear when the guidance is published.

We plan to update guidance on pre-examination and examination to reflect the increased importance of the Examining Authority’s Initial Assessment of Principal Issues (IAPI). This will include new guidance for statutory bodies on their role in engaging with the examination process. Further changes to guidance to reflect the government’s reforms, including to support the rights of entry to land for surveys for applicants, and to reflect any changes to compulsory acquisition processes, will follow in due course.

We also plan to publish new guidance on the decision stage of the NSIP process which will incorporate changes to the judicial review of DCOs.

Legislative changes to the Planning Act have consequential impacts on much of the suite of existing NSIP guidance, and we intend to update all relevant NSIP guidance over the coming months. Alongside this, we will work with the Planning Inspectorate to review and update their advice notes.

Government is giving consideration to the process for amending DCOs, including changes to secondary legislation and guidance, and will engage stakeholders as we do so. We plan for a new process to be in place in 2027.

Secondary legislation

The core legal changes being introduced to streamline infrastructure planning are contained within the Planning Act, as amended by the PIA 2025. However, secondary legislation is also required to introduce further provisions and to give full effect to the PIA 2025 measures. Further, subject to the government response to the consultation, we may seek to make changes to regulations unrelated to the PIA 2025 provisions.

The delivery of secondary legislation will be subject to the availability of Parliamentary time. Where possible, we will commence measures at the same time, alongside updated guidance. Our objective will be to provide as much clarity as possible across the whole of the operation of the NSIP process.

Transitional arrangements and Planning Inspectorate advice and services

For applicants who are submitting DCO applications for acceptance (under section 55 of the Planning Act) before the PIA 2025 provisions are commenced, the Planning Inspectorate will advise they continue to prepare applications in accordance with the existing primary and secondary legislative requirements and guidance which remains in force. Applications will be tested against the current acceptance test, set out in section 55 of the Planning Act.

For those planning to submit DCO applications after the PIA 2025 amendments to the Planning Act have commenced, the Planning Inspectorate will advise applicants to carefully consider their approach to the pre-application process (e.g. consultation and engagement). Applicants will also need to carefully consider, on a case-by-case basis, how to comply with the ‘duty to notify’ requirements under section 46, which will be amended once the pre-application and acceptance provisions of the PIA 2025 commence; transitional provisions for section 46 will commence simultaneously and associated guidance will be issued. Any adjustment to the approach to consultation and engagement in anticipation of the commencement of the relevant PIA 2025 provisions is for the applicant to determine.

DCO applications prepared against the current pre-application and acceptance legislative regime and guidance and submitted for acceptance after the relevant PIA 2025 amendments commence, will be assessed under the new pre-application and acceptance test regime, save for any transitional provisions.

Our consultation sought views on the services offered by the Planning Inspectorate for applicants during the NSIP process. Once we have confirmed government’s policy position in our response to the consultation, we will develop a timeframe and plan for implementation of changes to services provided by the Planning Inspectorate. We will work across government and with the Local Authority Planning Advisory Service, and other key stakeholders, to revise guidance and support changes to Planning Inspectorate services to support implementation.