The Planning and Infrastructure Bill received Royal Assent on the 18^th December 2025 and aims to help reduce the delays and costs to get homes and critical infrastructure built.

Steve Reed, Housing Secretary, said: “Britain’s growth has been held back by a sluggish planning system, slamming the brakes on building and standing in the way of fixing the housing crisis for good.       

“Our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Act will tear down barriers to growth, and this means getting spades in the ground faster, unshackling projects stuck in planning limbo and crucially unlocking a win-win for the environment and the economy.”

Key changes in the Act include:      

• New Nature Restoration Fund will allow developers to get spades in the ground faster for multiple housing and infrastructure projects, with Natural England putting in place pro-nature measures at scale to restore natural habitats and wildlife.    
• Limiting the number of attempts at legal challenge against government decisions on major infrastructure projects, with only one attempt rather than three for cases deemed by the court as totally without merit.      
• Modernising planning committees to focus on the most significant developments rather than smaller projects, speeding up local decisions on new homes.      
• Extra powers for development corporations to speed up delivery of large-scale projects, including the next generation of new towns, with more affordable homes and public transport.        
• Simplifying the approval process for new EV chargers on public roads to save time and costs while supporting clean power.       
• Enabling electricity bill discounts of up to £2,500 over 10 years for communities hosting new pylons and transmission infrastructure.     
• Making it easier to acquire land for new homes, GP surgeries, and schools.  

Sam Bensted, Assistant Director, British Property Federation (BPF), said: “It is crucial that more homes are delivered and at pace to meet housing need. Greater certainty in the local planning process, and the greater delegation of planning decisions to planning officers, should go some way to achieving this. A lot of the detail that will come forward through the emerging Spatial Development Strategies is still to be worked up, and it is vital that these new strategic plans also effectively plan for employment uses to generate jobs alongside new homes. The larger than local approach must be applied to industrial and logistics space, which enables goods to move efficiently around the country, boosts employment and creates economically sustainable communities. The detail around the Environmental Delivery Plans and the new Nature Restoration Fund will be crucial. We want reassurance that the new approach will be delivered in a way that genuinely protects and restores nature in tandem with speeding up the development process.”

In the coming weeks and months, ministers will set out when the remaining reforms in the legislation will come into effect.