A government consultation on streamlining infrastructure planning for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) has been launched.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is seeking views on changes to guidance, services operated by the public sector and secondary legislation to streamline the planning process for NSIPs. The consultation will close later this year on 27 October.

This includes the following proposals that support the application process for development consent under the Planning Act 2008:

New guidance about consultation and engagement following removal of statutory pre-application consultation requirements through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill

• Guidance and secondary legislation to support notification and publicity
• Guidance to support the acceptance stage for applications
• The use of Initial Assessments of Principal Issues to focus examinations
• Guidance for public bodies about their role in examinations
• Changes to regulations related to the examination of applications including compulsory acquisition
• Reforms and improvements to pre-application services provided by the Planning Inspectorate and the fast-track process
• Supporting pre-application services through effective resourcing of statutory bodies

It also seeks views on the removal of statutory pre-application requirements for onshore wind projects under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 guidance.

These proposals relate to England, Wales and Scotland (to a limited extent) only.

Housing and planning minister Matthew Pennycook said: “A failure to build enough critical infrastructure, in particular Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs), is constraining economic growth and undermining our energy security. Upgrading the country’s major economic infrastructure – including our electricity networks and clean energy sources, roads, public transport links and water supplies – is essential to delivering basic services and growing the economy.

“This government has taken decisive action to support the delivery of critical infrastructure projects. We moved quickly last year to lift the ban on onshore wind and expand the scope of the NSIP regime, enabling laboratories, gigafactories and data centres to be directed into the process.

“And we are making more timely decisions on individual projects than any previous government, determining more planning applications for infrastructure projects since the general election than in any previous 12-month period.

“Our landmark Planning and Infrastructure Bill, currently progressing through Parliament, will make it quicker and easier to deliver critical infrastructure projects including through streamlining NSIP consultation requirements, ensuring National Policy Statements are kept up to date, and reducing opportunities for judicial review.

“To ensure their timely commencement, this consultation seeks views on how best to implement some of the most significant reforms in the bill as well as other key proposals that support the application process for development consent under the Planning Act 2008.”

Click here to read the consultation.