This idea has been created by the Scrutinise team as a historical case study. It represents real legislation that reached the statute book through civil society advocacy. It is presented here to show how that process might have looked on Scrutinise.
Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025
Streamlined planning for nationally significant infrastructure, reformed the Nature Restoration Fund to reduce development delays, and created new powers for development corporations. The CBI and British Property Federation led years of advocacy for planning reform as a growth barrier.
Summary
Streamlined planning for nationally significant infrastructure, reformed the Nature Restoration Fund to reduce development delays, and created new powers for development corporations. The CBI and British Property Federation led years of advocacy for planning reform as a growth barrier.
Challenge (summary)
The UK's planning system was a major constraint on economic growth. Infrastructure projects faced multi-year delays from judicial review and pre-application requirements. The biodiversity net gain framework created per-site obligations that developers found unworkable and expensive.
Approach (summary)
Streamline NSIP consents, replace per-project biodiversity obligations with a Nature Restoration Fund allowing developers to fund landscape-scale nature recovery, and give development corporations new compulsory purchase powers.
First step (summary)
Introduce a Planning and Infrastructure Bill removing the statutory pre-application consultation requirement, establishing the Nature Restoration Fund administered by Natural England, and amending compulsory purchase law to speed up land assembly for major development corporations.
Stage
DevelopIdea Type
Legislation
Government Area
Housing
Created
27 Mar 2026