Accelerating national infrastructure—proposals to streamline NSIPs

Table of contents

• Objectives and background
• National policy statements
• Faster decisions under the NSIP system
• Changes to consultation
• Supporting delivery of infrastructure post-consent
• Creating a more flexible regime
• Strengthening statutory guidance
• Updating transport consenting regimes
• Our verdict

Article summary

Planning analysis: The government has published a Planning Reform Working Paper titled ‘Streamlining Infrastructure Planning’ (the Paper), inviting views on further action to streamline the development of critical infrastructure, in particular Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), across England. The proposals include: changes to the updating procedures for National Policy Statements (NPSs); speeding up decisions under the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008) procedure, by amending the consultation and post-consent stages, introducing greater flexibility into the regime and strengthening statutory guidance; and related improvements to transport specific consenting regimes.