Aisling Byrne is Senior Public Affairs Officer at the RTPI 

Wrapping up a year with planning reform at centre focus, we’ve received the news that after being first introduced to Parliament in March earlier this year, the Planning and Infrastructure Act has now received Royal Assent and has become law.

Legislative scrutiny began in the House of Commons, with only Government amendments making it into the Bill, and on the 10 December, the House of Lords confirmed they were happy with the Common’s consideration of their amendments, allowing for the Bill to be passed onto its final stage and for the King to formally agree the bill as an act of law.

How to engage with the legislative scrutiny of an Act?

At the RTPI, we’ve been actively involved with the passage of the Act in a number of different ways; 

• We were part of a small group of organisations called to give oral evidence to the Bill Committee in the House of Commons.
• Providing written evidence to the Commons Bill Committee.
• Submitting representations in response to six different planning reform working papers.
• Responding to two technical consultations associated with planning reform within the Act.
• Producing eight written parliamentary briefings for MPs and Peers to support debates in both chambers.
• Meeting with a number of MPs and Peers throughout the passage of the Act to discuss the RTPI’s overall response and our proposed amendments.
• Highlighting our response and proposed amendments at events throughout the year, including panels and meetings at UKREiiF and Labour Party Conference.

As a result of our advocacy, all four of our proposed amendments were tabled and debated during the passage of the Act. This was a key opportunity to raise these important issues within the Parliamentary debate chambers and prompt the Government into response on each topic.

• The Government acknowledged for the first time that they recognised there may be a growing need to put chief planners on a statutory footing given the impending programme of planning reform. We are delighted to be continuing to work with Peers across the House of Lords to ensure a chief planner amendment is inserted into the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.
• We also have shifted the dial in the conversation around a National Spatial Framework, with multiple Parliamentary committees now making recommendations along the lines of our amendment, and the Government committed to pursuing the idea further through national spatial priorities.
• The new proposed NPPF, currently out for consultation, contains a section on the purpose of the planning system, including the opening line that “the purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development, by managing the use and development of land in the long-term public interest.”
• The Government are committed to further supporting local authorities through guidance in offering hybrid or online council meetings for the public.

Key measures the Planning and Infrastructure Act will introduce

Spatial development strategies (SDSs) – Here we have the long-awaited re-introduction to strategic planning. New strategic authorities will now have to prepare a document called a spatial development strategy (SDS). Local plans produced by local planning authorities (LPAs) will be required to be in general conformity with a spatial development strategy. Provisions around SDS production and new strategic authorities go hand in hand with measures being brought forward in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill which devolves more planning powers to mayors of strategic authorities.

Fees for planning applications – We have long been calling for planning fees to be re-invested into planning services, and provisions within the Act are set to do just that. The Act will allow LPAs to set their own planning fees and requires that the income from these fees be applied to the relevant planning function.

Surcharge on planning fees – In the early stages of the Act’s passage we highlighted the importance of appropriately resourcing the whole planning system, including statutory consultees. A Government amendment to the bill, which is now included in the Act, allows for a surcharge on planning fees to be imposed and funding collected through the surcharge can be used to support the funding of statutory consultees, and other bodies that support the planning application process.

National scheme of delegation – The Act provides for regulations to be made setting out functions for a national scheme of delegation in England. The intention is to ensure there is greater consistency and certainty across England about who in LPAs is responsible for making planning decisions. The Government has confirmed its intention to publish a response to the consultation from earlier this year around proposals for the national scheme of delegation and has committed to consulting further on the draft regulations in early 2026.

What next for planning reform?

This is by no means the end of planning reform for this parliamentary term, but just the beginning of a process of developing and implementing new measures. Many of the measures being brought forward within the Act will need regulations to be prepared before coming into force. We also await guidance on key measures, such as spatial development strategies, and how these will interact with local plans and existing strategies. For now, we’ve reached the first milestone in what is a continuing process of reform.