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Places for People responds to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill

11 March 2025

Medium Branwen Evans 33694 212

“Today’s announcement on the measures to be included in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill reinforces this Government’s commitment to tackling the housing crisis. Places for People will always support proposals to remove blockages and accelerate decision-making. We hope that through debate it will be possible for these measures go further and make an even stronger contribution.  

“The status quo still has too many people unable to access the homes they need. While we will continue to pursue new development opportunities as part of our commitment to support the Government in accelerating their homebuilding programme, the sector needs sustained investment and the right skills to turn this ambition into reality. Legislative reforms must be backed up by a strong commitment in the Spending Review in June. Today is a win for the sector, our Customers and Communities. This must continue.” 

 Our initial highlights: 

  • Limiting judicial delays in the planning world: Reducing delays in judicial reviews of nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) is welcome. However, we think that this proposal could extend to other parts of planning determination. We also encourage exploring usage of ouster mechanisms in this Bill, meaning that the Government could consider not just reducing the duration of the judicial review process, but also review their basis.  

  1. Compulsory Purchase Order reforms: Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) have the challenge of being overly lengthy in process. The amendments simplify some of the administration involved to utilising CPOs. That said, an unintended consequence of removing hope value may disincentivise landowners from bringing sites forward, slowing down housebuilding ambitions. There could be additional measures in place to nudge landowners and we will share our proposals on this. 

  1. Aggregating decision-making: We particularly welcome the proposals on development corporations which we have previously called for, as well as strategic planning which expedites decision-making in a manner attuned to local and regional needs.