The Planning and Infrastructure Bill has now completed its Parliamentary stages and is awaiting Royal Assent. As a keystone of the government’s ambition to “get Britain building again”, the Bill represents the most significant package of planning and infrastructure reform in over a decade. Given the strong presence of property, housing, infrastructure and planning professionals across ISV’s membership, this legislation will be of direct interest to many.
What the Bill is trying to achieve
The government’s stated aim is to deliver a faster, more predictable planning and consenting system, addressing what it sees as structural delays that constrain housing supply, infrastructure delivery and energy security.
Key reforms include:
- Streamlining Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) processes
and limiting opportunities for delay
- Introducing strategic planning at a sub-regional scale through Spatial
Development Strategies
- Reforming planning committees, including mandatory training and clearer
delegation to professional officers
- Strengthening development corporations and compulsory purchase powers to
unlock land for housing and infrastructure
From a social value perspective, these changes are framed by the government as enabling earlier certainty, better coordination and faster delivery of homes, transport, energy and public amenities.
Nature recovery: opportunity and concern
One of the most significant changes is the introduction of the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF) and Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs). These allow developers to meet environmental obligations through strategic, coordinated interventions rather than project-by-project mitigation, with the intention of reducing delay and achieving more meaningful nature recovery outcomes. Supporters argue that this could free up specialist ecological capacity, reduce administrative burdens for small and medium developments, and enable larger scale, longer-term environmental improvements However, this approach has also attracted substantial concern from environmental charities and campaign groups.
Organisations including The Wildlife Trusts, Wildlife & Countryside Link, Wild Justice and the RSPB Youth Council have warned that replacing site-specific assessments with strategic plans risks weakening existing environmental protections, particularly for protected habitats and species. Critics argue that the reforms could allow environmental harm to occur before restoration benefits are delivered.
Communities and infrastructure
The Bill introduces a mandatory, centralised scheme to provide electricity bill discounts for households near new or upgraded electricity transmission infrastructure, responding to longstanding concerns that communities hosting nationally important infrastructure often experience disruption without clear local benefit.
This measure has been welcomed by many as a tangible step towards sharing the benefits of the energy transition more fairly, and as a recognition that social value is critical to building public consent for major infrastructure.
What this means for social value
Overall, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill highlights an ongoing tension at the heart of planning reform: how to deliver growth, housing and infrastructure faster while maintaining environmental standards, community trust and long-term social value.
For ISV members, the Bill reinforces the importance of:
- Embedding social and environmental outcomes early in development and
infrastructure planning
- Demonstrating how growth can deliver tangible benefits for communities and
nature
- Engaging constructively with evolving policy frameworks as they move from
legislation into practice
As the Bill receives Royal Assent and secondary legislation and guidance follow, ISV will continue to track its implementation and explore what these reforms mean for delivering genuine social value on the ground.
