Post: Planning and Infrastructure Bill tabled before Parliament

Planning and Infrastructure Bill tabled before Parliament

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill completed its first reading in the House of Commons on 11 March.

The Bill forms part of the government’s wider policy to “get Britain building” and aims to prevent the fundamental blockers to nationally significant infrastructure projects and other items of priority.

The Bill aims to make it quicker and easier to deliver critical infrastructure projects including through streamlining Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) consultation requirements, ensuring National Policy Statements are kept up to date, and reducing opportunities for judicial review. These changes will support the government’s Clean Power Action Plan by accelerating the planning process for energy infrastructure and ensuring local communities benefit through the creation of a bill discount scheme for people living in the area.

It also proposes:

• streamlining the approvals for installation of EV charging infrastructure by using permits and replacing the need for street work licences
• imposing a duty on Ofgem to deliver a cap and floor scheme for Long duration electricity storage (LDES)
• An extended commissioning period for offshore electricity transmission system to reduce the number of offshore wind farms needing to apply for exemptions, and or having to shut down due to non-compliance with the Electricity Act
• allowing forestry authorities to permit forestry land to be used for the generation, storage, transmission or supply of renewable energy
• offering financial benefits to those local to energy infrastructure developments, such as bill discounts of up to £2,500 spread across 10 years to communities that are situated close to new electricity infrastructure

The Bill will progress to second reading on 24 March 2025.