Major infrastructure projects including new roads, bypasses, railway lines and tramlines will be accelerated under a major shake-up to planning processes
Major infrastructure projects including new roads, bypasses, railway lines and tramlines will be accelerated under a major shake-up to planning processes.
The landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which will be introduced in Parliament this week, will set out how the delivery process for critical infrastructure will be streamlined to boost growth. Ministers will also press ahead with reforms to current laws to speed up delivery and scale back bureaucracy.
Changes to the Highways Act will include new powers to allow temporary possession of land to speed up negotiations between developers and landowners for new roads and rail. It will also remove the need for secondary legislation for certain road schemes. Reforms to the Transport and Works Act will include bringing in legal deadlines for decisions to be made by inspectors and the Secretary of State.
The shake-up is expected to add billions to the UK economy, creating thousands of new jobs and reducing the length of travel by road or public transport. The changes will also support the government’s pledge to make planning decisions on at least 150 major infrastructure projects, including roads and railways, in this Parliament.
Elsewhere, ministers could slash the number of official bodies that get a say in planning decisions in a drive to cut red tape and get Britain building. Officials will consult on removing Sport England, the Theatres Trust and the Garden History Society from the list of “statutory consultees”, while the scope of others who get to give input is set to be narrowed.
“Statutory consultees” are official stakeholders legally required to provide advice on planning decisions to ensure developments can consider essential environmental, transport, heritage and safety elements. They play an important role in the planning system, but the current set up has seen councils and developers face unnecessary obstacles as a result of the lengthy process and number of bodies required to input – leading to long delays and burdensome bureaucracy.
Reforms set out today will also state that councils should only be going to statutory consultees when it is necessary to do so, and decisions should not be delayed beyond the standard 21-day deadline. Officials have also said the scope of other statutory consultees will be narrowed to focus on heritage, safety and environmental protection.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner said: “We’ve put growth at the heart of our plans as a Government, with our Plan for Change milestone to secure 1.5 million homes and unleash Britain’s potential to build. We need to reform the system to ensure it is sensible and balanced, and does not create unintended delays – putting a hold on people’s lives and harming our efforts to build the homes people desperately need.”
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said: “A huge bureaucratic burden has held back this country’s transport infrastructure, costing the taxpayer unnecessarily and ultimately stunting economic growth. Our changes to this dated legislation will streamline and speed up major infrastructure, ensuring that unnecessary delays don’t hold up new roads, railway lines, and tram lines, so we can build smarter and faster.”
