The UK Government has published its Policy Paper on Nationally Significant Infrastructure, including an action plan for reforms to the Planning Process.
… government will be reviewing National Policy Statements regularly…
GOV.UK writes:
….Improving energy security, achieving net zero and delivering the transport connectivity, water and waste management facilities this country needs demands investment in infrastructure. We must have a planning system fit to deliver it, while keeping communities and the environment at the heart of decision-making.
The Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) consenting process has served the UK well for more than a decade. However, the demands on the system are changing, and its speed has slowed. The number and complexity of cases coming into the system is increasing. Policy changes are more frequent in response to a changing world.
Cumulative impacts, particularly in the offshore wind and electricity networks sector, require strategic solutions outside the remit of individual projects. International developments have underlined how crucial it is for the UK to build its own infrastructure to meet energy security, resilience and net zero objectives.
The government set out its ambition in the National Infrastructure Strategy in 2020 to make the infrastructure consenting process better, faster and greener and these ambitions were reinforced in the British Energy Security Strategy (April 2022).
The Planning Act 2008 sets out the statutory timescales for certain aspects of the NSIP process and based on these timescales, the government expects that decisions should be delivered within 17 months of an application being submitted. Our priority is to get back to decision-making within the statutory timescales as a minimum and make improvements wherever possible.
We need to ensure the effectiveness and resilience of the planning regime for the growing pipeline of critical infrastructure projects. The government will be reviewing National Policy Statements regularly, piloting a new fast track consenting opportunity, streamlining the system to ensure that requirements on developers and consultees are proportionate, focussed and supported, and ensuring that the system is fair and transparent for communities and delivers for the environment.
The NSIP regime needs to be:
1. better at delivering as robust as possible decisions within the statutory timescales, giving both developers and communities certainty in the process
2. faster at handling all applications, through streamlined and strengthened processes, a proportionate approach, and a new fast-track timeframe for suitable applications
3. greener by delivering positive outcomes for the environment and following the mitigation hierarchy with proactive plans for environmental protection and enhancement
4. fairer to communities by emphasising benefits to local people that come with major infrastructure investment
5. and more resilient in its resourcing to enable all stakeholders to engage meaningfully and proactively in the process with the right skills at the right time
We will not achieve this through legislation and policy statements alone. We are asking everyone involved in this process to engage proactively with our reforms. By working together, we can support the delivery of nationally significant infrastructure, incentivise more investment into the UK and ensure we are able to meet our infrastructure, energy and environmental challenges. We are grateful for all of you who have contributed to achieving this aim so far, and now invite you to support the delivery of this action plan.
