Building a better future with the law

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduced to Parliament on 11 March is a key element of the Government’s Growth Mission. The Bill supports the Government’s commitments to build 1.5 million new homes in this Parliament, kickstart economic growth and make Britain a clean energy superpower through reforms to the planning system.

The key objective of the Bill is to streamline planning processes to accelerate house building and major infrastructure projects. The Bill will also support the government’s Clean Power 2030 mission by speeding up the delivery of clean energy infrastructure.

Successful delivery of the Bill has involved outstanding cross government collaboration by Government Legal Department lawyers advising in 5 key departments: MHCLG, DfT, DESNZ, Defra and MoJ. GLD lawyers worked closely with lawyers in the Office for Parliamentary Counsel who drafted the Bill.

Thanks to expert legal advice from across the Civil Service, we have been able to deliver all aspects of the Bill, and associated products such as the Explanatory Notes Delegated Powers Memorandum and Human Rights memorandum. Innovative and creative thinking helped deliver legal solutions to support the delivery of housebuilding, the creation of a Nature Restoration Fund, and improvements to infrastructure and clean energy.

The Bill’s measures which introduce environmental delivery plans make targeted amendments to existing environmental legislation, like the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017, in order to assist the securing of improved outcomes for the environment.

In response to Lord Banner KC’s independent review into legal challenges of Development Consent Orders, the Bill also makes provision for the removal of the paper permission stage for judicial reviews of National Policy Statements and Development Consent Orders, introduced by the Planning Act 2008, and removes the right to appeal for cases deemed totally without merit at the oral permission hearing.