In February 2023, the UK government asked the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) to undertake a study on the infrastructure planning system and the role of National Policy Statements.

A new report sets out the Commission’s recommendations on how to improve the consenting process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs).

The Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project planning regime was established through the Planning Act 2008 to provide more certainty on the need for nationally significant projects.

The report states that initially the system worked well, but since 2012 consenting times have increased by 65 per cent, moving from 2.6 to 4.2 years, and the rate of judicial review has spiked in recent years to 58 per cent from a long-term average of ten per cent.

The system has in part decelerated because National Policy Statements have not been updated since they were first issued and have not been supported by clear supplementary guidance.

Photo by Nicholas Doherty

The Commission’s top-line conclusion is that it should become a legal requirement for National Policy Statements on NSIPS to be updated every five years at a minimum, by 2025 at the latest. This is currently not legally binding. These Statements exist to assess how NSIPS align with Government policies on issues such as health and safety, the economy and climate change.

Average consenting time could reduce from four years to 2.5 years

The NIC believes that, if all recommendations in its review were adopted, the average consenting time for an NSIP would reduce from four years to 2.5 years. Crucially, it believes that this reduction in timescales will not result in a race to the bottom on environmental and social standards. On the contrary, it is proposing changes that it believes will make NSIPs more environmentally friendly, will fast-track low-carbon infrastructure, and will ensure socio-economic benefits are more fairly shared.

The full report and the summary can be read here.