Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Date

August 15th, 2025

Category

Article

Aerial,View,Of,The,City,Of,Southampton,,Hampshire,,England

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill, introduced in late 2024 and progressing through Parliament in 2025, marks a significant change in how environmental obligations are managed within the planning system. This introduces both opportunities and new responsibilities for developers operating in nutrient-sensitive catchments, areas with protected species or other environmental pressures, for example recreational disturbance mitigation.

Timeline

December 2024: Revised National Planning Policy Framework published
January 2025: Planning and Infrastructure Bill introduced to Parliament
July 2025: Updated guidance on Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs)
Expected Late 2025: Royal Assent anticipates; secondary legislation to follow

What’s Changing?

The Bill aims to strategically address nutrient pollution, which has been a barrier to housing development in nutrient sensitive catchments and introduce new mechanisms for how nutrient neutrality and BNG will be delivered:

Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs): Natural England will develop these and they will outline conservation action across regions. Developers can discharge their environmental mitigation obligations by contributing to these plans, rather than undertaking site-specific mitigation.
Nature Restoration Fund and Levy: Developers may pay a fee, the levy, into a central Nature Restoration Fund. These payments will cover obligations set by the EDP which may include requirements such as nutrient neutrality, protection of endangered species, or other environmental obligations.

The Bill shifts the focus from project-by-project mitigation, towards strategic, catchment-scale interventions. This is intended to deliver greater environmental uplift and reduce delays in housing and infrastructure delivery.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Planning and Infrastructure Bill – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament