There have been several major amendments made to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill by the Government, which should further streamline the planning process.

They include reducing the length of consultation, stripping uncooperative councils of the right to make certain decisions, and paring back the impact and ability to raise legal disputes.

Richard Beresford, Chief Executive of the National Federation of Builders, said: “Planning reform was never going to be a quick endeavour because our sclerotic, siloed system needs careful analysis to unpick and understand. The Government should be commended on recognising this and taking a proactive approach to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill because it will be an integral piece of legislation in ensuring all projects can be delivered more quickly.”

Proposed amendments to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, include:

• Changes to ‘holding directions’ - which stop local planning authorities from considering an application - can now be issued by ministers while they decide whether to ‘call-in’ the application. Previously, they were only able to do this when a council was set to approve it
• Enabling non-water companies to build reservoirs, with all such developments being considered ‘nationally significant infrastructure projects’
• Allowing Natural England to decline requests from local authorities to comment on nature-related planning applications. At present, it must reply to all requests, even ones that it believes are not relevant
• Automatic extensions of the time for implementing planning permission where it is challenged in legal proceedings
• Cutting back legal challenges for major infrastructure projects from three to one and slashing a year off the statutory pre-consultation period

Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight at the NFB, said: “Tweaks to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will help deliver the water and grid capacity that projects require to get planning permission. They will stop councils finding loopholes to avoid building homes. This is a clear indication that the Government understands that ‘Build, baby, build’ is a mantra, not a slogan.”

These new tweaks, the Government believes, should remove barriers to their plans for economic growth and fulfil their 1.5 million homes target by the end of the Parliament.