The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 passed into law in December, with the aim of speeding up the construction of new homes and infrastructure by reforming the planning system in England and Wales.
The Act removes what the UK government believes are unnecessary obstacles for housing and infrastructure projects. It is hoped that it will spur economic growth and be a significant step towards energy security.
Modus asked three surveyors with expertise in different areas of the industry what they think of the new bill and the changes it will bring.
Commercial property Nella Pang MRICS, managing director at Omega RE
What are the key points of the Planning and Infrastructure Act for commercial property?
The Act is about speed, certainty and unlocking delivery. The intention is to cut delay and cost across planning and major infrastructure, so viable schemes stop getting stuck in limbo. That matters because the gap between policy and reality is widening.
When planning becomes unpredictable, investment stalls. Planning delay is one of the biggest invisible drags on UK growth because it freezes development, delays jobs, and slows down investment decisions. When timeframes slip from weeks into months, businesses operate in a grey area and capital waits on the sidelines.
The Act is a welcome signal that government understands planning is not just administration, it’s a growth engine. The test is implementation and proper resourcing – historically, planning teams have been under-resourced. We’ve seen previous reforms, like National Planning Policy Framework simplification, reduce guidance dramatically without speeding up outcomes. Theory is great, but capacity is still the blocker.
How will it affect the planning and completion of major infrastructure projects?
Major infrastructure is where the Act could be truly transformational. For commercial property, infrastructure isn’t optional: transport, utilities and especially power capacity determine whether a site is investable and deliverable. If reforms genuinely speed up decisions and reduce blockage risk, it will improve confidence across the whole pipeline, from industrial and logistics to mixed-use town centre regeneration.
Better infrastructure delivery also supports housing and employment growth together, which is how you create sustainable places. Faster infrastructure decisions could unlock investment at scale.
Do you think the environmental/sustainability elements of the Act, such as the Nature Restoration Fund, will be effective?
The principle behind the Nature Restoration Fund is strong: move away from piecemeal mitigation and instead deliver nature recovery at scale, strategically, with clearer routes through planning. If designed and governed well, that could reduce delays while improving environmental outcomes more meaningfully than fragmented site-by-site approaches.
But it has to be outcome-led. The market needs confidence that paying into a strategic solution still leads to real nature improvement, not just a process. Transparency, measurable results and accountability will be key because otherwise the policy risks becoming a box-ticking exercise.
What will be its biggest impact on the day-to-day work of commercial property surveyors?
The biggest impact on surveyors will be how much more planning risk and programme uncertainty shapes commercial advice. Planning is no longer a neat stage, it’s a major risk variable in valuation, feasibility and investment decisions.
We’re told 12 weeks for applications to be reviewed, but I’m seeing schemes not even assessed, leaving businesses operating at risk. If planning takes 12–24 months to secure, markets and construction costs can shift dramatically, making financial feasibility harder to run and harder to stand behind. Certainty is now a commercial advantage.
Valuation Graham Bowcock MRICS, managing director of Oakwood Property Services
What are the key points of the Planning and Infrastructure Act for those in valuation?
Streamlining of the planning system, faster decision-making, and reduced delays for housing and infrastructure development. The Act aims to increase housing supply, including affordable homes, and accelerate major infrastructure delivery.
These changes will affect values of development land, hopefully with more predictability than there is currently. We have already seen more activity from developers but, being cynical, I am not convinced that the local authority infrastructure is in place to give the appropriate level of support. I do not feel that enough is being done to address the issue of social or affordable housing within the Act.
How will the Act help the government achieve its target of 1.5m new homes in this parliament?
By reducing planning delays, simplifying local plan requirements, and lowering costs for developers. Speeding up approvals and encouraging strategic planning means homes should be completed more quickly where demand is highest. Increased certainty should also unlock stalled sites.
However, existing forecasts suggest the UK is currently far short of the target – only around 225,000 homes gained full planning consent in the year to March 2025, compared with the 300,000 each year needed to meet 1.5m over five years. Even in an optimistic scenario, Savills suggests delivery could reach 1.2m homes by 2029, which still falls short of the 1.5m goal without additional demand-stimulating measures such as buyer support or increased grant funding.
Do you think it will stimulate growth in the UK economy?
If implemented effectively, the Act has strong potential to stimulate economic growth. By reducing barriers in the planning system, it lowers costs and delays for developers. Faster housing and infrastructure delivery should encourage private investment, support job creation, and improve productivity.
I do have a concern that at the cost of stimulating economic activity, construction prices will rise. There is already a significant shortage of people working in trades and delayed delivery for components.
How will it affect the planning and completion of major infrastructure projects?
Greater coordination at a national level should help align infrastructure investment with housing growth. This should lead to faster delivery times and lower development risk. For valuers, this may improve confidence in infrastructure-led regeneration schemes and support more robust long-term value assumptions.
Once again, I feel the need to be somewhat cynical as the UK government does not have a great record with implementing large infrastructure projects. Significant delays only serve to increase costs – schemes then get reviewed and pulled as being too costly.
How will it affect the planning and completion of major infrastructure projects?
In the short-term the impact is likely to be marginal. Over time we hope that greater certainty with development will stabilise land values. In terms of residential house values, I am not convinced that values will be massively impacted. The general demand for housing has been outstripping supply for many years. While the Act goes some way to addressing this, the issue will be with actual delivery and associated costs.
The unit cost may well rise, which means that sale prices will increase or stagnate. Developers will not build houses unless they make a profit. There may be more work for those involved with compensation advice in respect of strategic infrastructure schemes.
Building surveying Helen McKeown MRICS, director and co-founder of Axis Surveying
What are the key points of the Act for building surveyors?
It will speed up decision making, pace of development and return market confidence for their private investor clients
Addressing the housing shortage, for example, will create employment for those in the trades and encourage more employers to take on apprentices from colleges and universities at a time when we are at the sharp edge of a skills crisis.
Do you think it will stimulate growth in the UK economy?
For the built environment, construction outputs go hand-in-hand with economic goals – therefore any measure that unblocks development and supports economic performance is a no-brainer. Increased activity across housing, infrastructure and regeneration boosts market confidence, attracts internal and external investment and creates employment and social mobility. The success of the Act will depend on whether the reforms genuinely reduce delay and improve delivery at scale.
How will it affect the planning and completion of major infrastructure projects?
Being a Manchester-centric surveying business, connecting up the north to achieve the ‘Northern Powerhouse' goal has been over-promised and under-provided for far too long. If the Act simplifies consenting routes and reduces the time taken to secure approvals for nationally significant infrastructure then, again, the direct and indirect benefits to the UK economy will be huge for generations to come.
Do you think the environmental/sustainability elements of the Act, such as the Nature Restoration Fund (NRF), will be effective?
Biodiversity net gain has been considered nothing more than tokenism by some. These new measures signal stronger commitment to a better balance between the built environment, the economy and the natural environment.
The effectiveness of the NRF is yet to be seen of course, and will very much depend on funding levels, governance and how local authorities integrate and enforce the measures within their planning decisions.
What will be its biggest impact on the day-to-day work of building surveyors?
Faster project mobilisation, clearer planning pathways and increased demand for building surveyors providing technical due diligence services or development monitoring, as the pace of development within the private sector accelerates.
The Act could also increase the need for early risk assessment, viability input and coordination with planning specialists. My investor clients are asking “are we through the worst yet?”, and my gut feeling is that the Planning and Infrastructure Act has certainly helped the economy start to turn the corner.
