The government's Planning and Infrastructure Bill (PIB) has received Royal Assent and officially become law, marking a key milestone in the government's drive to speed up the delivering of housing and infrastructure.

Labour calculates the act will drive a £7.5bn economic boost over the next decade

The landmark act is at the centre of Whitehall’s plans to build 1.5 million homes this parliament and meet its 150 decisions target on major infrastructure.

The bill was launched in March 2025 and aims to cut delays and costs preventing the development of new homes and critical infrastructure.

Key policies include a new nature restoration fund to simplify developer contributions to nature protection.

It is intended to streamline planning decisions by introducing a national scheme of delegation for housebuilding, dictating which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committee.

Development corporations will also get extra powers to speed up large-scale developments, including new towns, and planning committees will be modernised to speed up decision-making on new homes.

Labour claims the pro-growth changes will see up to £7.5bn injected into the UK economy over the next decade.

Housing secretary Steve Reed said the act would “tear down barriers to growth” and “unshackle projects stuck in planning limbo”, in turn achieving a “win-win for the environment and economy”.

Reacting, Elle Cass, head of strategic built environment growth at SLR Consulting and incoming 2026 chair of the Royal Town Planning Institute, welcomed the news as a positive step forward.

She called the Nature Restoration Fund particularly encouraging, and said the act offered an opportunity to “rethink how industrial and logistics infrastructure is planned”.

“Combined with the NPPF [National Planning Policy Framework] news this week, the Royal Assent of the PIB shows that government is listening and making meaningful changes to speed up the delivery of homes, infrastructure and energy projects – a clear example of democracy in action.”

Victoria Du Croz, partner and head of planning at Forsters, said action to speed up and tackle long-standing uncertainty and ambiguity in the planning system was “welcome news”.

“The hope is that the Planning and Infrastructure Act will make a material difference to the planning process and enable schemes to progress to delivery more quickly, helping to create economic growth and crucially the new homes the country urgently needs.”

BPF assistant director Sam Bensted said the news should “pave the way for more strategic planning and streamlined decision-making at the local level”.

He added: “It is crucial that more homes are delivered and at pace to meet housing need. Greater certainty in the local planning process, and the greater delegation of planning decisions to planning officers, should go some way to achieving this.”

He echoed other sentiments that a lot of detail is yet to come forward, with eyes firmly on further announcements in the new year.

Mark Battersby, planner at Newsteer, added that the extent to which the reforms achieve planned benefits will “depend heavily” on the secondary legislation and efforts to combat ongoing viability issues.

Still, he called the bill “one of the most significant reforms to the planning system in recent years”.

Ministers will set out when the remaining reforms in the legislation will come into effect in the coming weeks and months.