New Planning Bill to curb council vetoes and speed up UK building projects

The UK government has announced a suite of pro-growth amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill aimed at accelerating the delivery of new homes and infrastructure by curtailing local authorities' ability to block developments.

Under the proposed changes, Ministers would gain new powers to issue 'holding directions' to prevent councils from rejecting planning applications while the Secretary of State considers whether to use 'call-in' powers. This would mark a significant shift from the current system, where holding directions can only be issued if a council is inclined to approve a proposal. The government says the change is designed to address delays, citing nearly 900 major housing schemes blocked by local planning authorities in the past year.

The Bill, currently making its way through Parliament, is central to the government’s broader push to boost housebuilding and infrastructure investment. If enacted, the reforms would also make it more difficult for planning permissions to lapse while schemes are tied up in judicial reviews. Additionally, the number of legal challenges permitted for major infrastructure projects has already been reduced from three to one, with the statutory pre-consultation period also shortened by a year.

The government argues these changes will prevent stalled developments from restarting the planning process from scratch, enabling faster construction and reducing associated costs.

The Bill also includes measures to streamline the role of Natural England by allowing the agency discretion over which planning consultations to prioritise. Currently required to respond to all local authority queries, Natural England will instead focus on cases with higher environmental risk or opportunities for nature recovery, freeing resources to speed up approvals for new housing and infrastructure.

Beyond housing, the reforms propose treating large reservoirs as nationally significant infrastructure projects, making it easier for non-water sector companies to develop them. This move is intended to end a 30-year hiatus in UK reservoir construction and support water security.

The Bill is expected to facilitate the construction of more onshore windfarms, potentially unlocking up to 3GW of renewable energy capacity and an estimated £2 billion in investment. It also introduces mechanisms to align environmental protection with faster project delivery, including the expansion of the Nature Restoration Fund to cover marine development.

Housing Secretary Steve Reed said the legislation would address long-standing inefficiencies in the planning system: "Sluggish planning has real world consequences. Every new house blocked deprives a family of a home. Every infrastructure project that gets delayed blocks someone from a much-needed job. This will now end."

The proposed changes have drawn support from industry bodies including the CBI and infrastructure consultants. John Foster, Chief Policy & Campaigns Officer at the CBI, welcomed the amendments as a sign of government intent to "go further and faster in reforming our inefficient planning system."

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is due to return to the House of Lords for its Report Stage on 20 October.