The festive season usually accompanies periods of reflection, hope, and change for many and that is no exception when it comes to the Government’s zeal for Planning reforms. On 18^th December 2025, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill received royal assent, bringing with it a suite of legislative changes.

Firstly, operational efficiency is targeted as a crucial area for change in the act, with important functional changes that look to align themselves with the updated national scheme of delegation for determining applications which was outlined in the recent draft National Planning Policy Framework. Such changes include: a reshaping of planning committees’ priorities; extra powers for development corporations to speed up delivery of large-scale projects; streamlining the process for compulsory purchase orders for essential infrastructure and the potential for Local Government to delegate their own planning fees, with the aim of reducing the £362 million deficit in development management budgets nationwide. With this suite of reforms, the Government hopes to see a noticeable increase in economic and operational efficiency within the industry.

Importantly, the legislation sees that in the future, there will be the introduction of Spatial Development Strategies. This will see current/future unitary and county authorities prepare a Spatial Development Strategy for their area – an approach to sub-regional planning which has been modelled off London’s Spatial Development Strategy, aiming to synthesise a shared vision of growth and development in each sub-region. It once again, demonstrates the trend of legislative changes that are slowly moving decision-making powers away from Local Governments and toward what is described as a “more appropriate level” (MHCLG Guide to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, Sept 2025).

A reworking of environmental considerations is achieved through the updated bill, with a prominent change coming in the form of offsetting environmental impacts. The act sees that the Nature Restoration Fund, and new Environmental Delivery Plans in co-operation with Natural England, will look to phase out site-specific enhancements for large-scale projects. The change is made with the hope that such a movement will allow Natural England to enable more holistic benefits for nature-recovery across the country, contrary to the practice of offsetting environmental harm which the current system propagates. It seems that large-scale greenfield developments will benefit the most from this streamlining, removing much of the environmental red-tape which comes with this type of development.

Lastly, the doctrine for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) has been streamlined to keep legislation and practice guidance up-to-date and accelerate the delivery of major infrastructure projects. These changes to NSIPs seem to reflect the pressing need for sustainable and essential infrastructure such as power, reservoirs and roads in the country.

This act clearly recognises many of the practical pitfalls faced with the incumbent planning system and looks to sequentially reduce these issues through a priority-based approach. It is especially interesting when viewed alongside the proposed changes to the National Planning Policy Framework released in December 2025, where decision-making powers also seem to be increasing directed away from the Local Government level.

If you would like to talk to our Planning experts to better understand the current changes, or what they could mean for you – please reach out to our team at advice@waypointplanning.co.uk.

Image Credit

1. Lara John / unsplash