Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduced

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will be introduced to parliament today (March 11), featuring previously trailed measures including reform to planning committees and the return of strategic planning.

Measures contained within the Bill, will, according to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), bring “transformative” reform “to get Britain building, tackle blockers and unleash billions in economic growth”.

Under the Bill, MHCLG said, homes and key infrastructure that “hundreds of thousands of hard-working people and families need will be built quicker”, with measures introduced to accelerate planning decisions to boost housebuilding.

The reform is also set to remove “unnecessary blockers and challenges to the delivery of vital developments like roads, railway lines and windfarms”.

MHCLG stated that the features of the Bill would make Britain a more attractive investment prospect, “with a planning process that works for the builders”.

Key features of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill include:

Planning Committees

The government will streamline planning decisions for housebuilding through the introduction of a national scheme of delegation, setting out which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committee.

The scheme will also determine the size of planning committees “to …