Planning Inspectorate

The Planning Inspectorate has updated guidance and advice pages for nationally significant infrastructure projects following amendments to the Planning Act 2008 introduced by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, which came into force on 24 July 2026. Changes include removing obsolete pre-application consultation requirements, revising application submission arrangements, updating environmental impact assessment advice, and withdrawing several superseded documents. Further advice pages will be updated in August 2026, with a broader review continuing through the summer. The Inspectorate is also piloting revised pre-application services and expects to update its 2024 Prospectus by summer 2027; applicants should continue using the existing service tiers until then.

The guidance explains how applicants for nationally significant infrastructure projects in England and Wales should address Environmental Impact Assessment during the pre-application stage under the Planning Act 2008 and the Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2017. It covers determining whether EIA is required, screening and scoping requests, consultation duties, submission formats, GIS shapefiles, environmental statements, alternatives, baseline data, mitigation and monitoring. It also sets requirements for using the Rochdale Envelope, emphasizing clearly defined maximum parameters, cautious worst-case assessment and sufficient certainty to assess likely significant effects. Applicants are encouraged to engage early with consultation bodies, provide evidence-based justifications for scoping matters out, protect sensitive environmental information and publish relevant pre-application documents.

Applicants for nationally significant infrastructure projects in England and Wales must submit development consent applications through the Planning Inspectorate’s secure online service. The submission link is provided at least four weeks before the confirmed date, and applicants should upload documents between 9am and 5pm on that date. Missing the deadline requires agreeing a new date with the Planning Inspectorate; the completed application form is generated during submission and automatically added to the documents.

Development consent has been granted for the One Earth Solar Farm, a project including a solar installation and battery storage system exceeding 50 MW. Following an examination involving local communities and statutory consultees, the Planning Inspectorate recommended approval to the Secretary of State. All related documents and evidence are publicly available, and the decision was issued by Lord Whitehead on behalf of the Energy Secretary.

The Planning Inspectorate provides examples of documents that supported the Planning Act 2008 process for nationally significant infrastructure projects in England and Wales. It highlights effective approaches including living document management, clear version control, strategic and objective local impact assessments, concise statements of common ground, structured responses to written questions, reasoned written representations, design principles for post-consent infrastructure, and plain-English technical explanations of solar generation and battery storage. The guidance stresses that inclusion does not endorse the evidence or proposals and identifies improvements such as adding hyperlinks and cross-references. Examples cover electricity connections, offshore wind farms, and solar power infrastructure.

The guidance explains how public bodies should work with applicants and the Planning Inspectorate throughout the six-stage Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process in England and Wales. It covers early consultation, environmental assessment, development consent orders, statements of common ground, examination evidence, separate consents and post-consent monitoring and enforcement. Applicants are responsible for securing the necessary expertise and permissions, while public bodies provide technical advice, respond to consultations and help identify and mitigate impacts. Recent reforms allow several public bodies to recover the costs of planning services, and the guidance includes annexes detailing the roles of key environmental, marine, heritage, nuclear and safety regulators.

Explains the six stages of England and Wales’s Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project process: pre-application, acceptance, pre-examination, examination, recommendation and decision, followed by a six-week judicial review period. It sets out how applicants must publicise projects and how members of the public can submit representations, become interested parties, respond to questions, speak at hearings and attend certain site inspections. The Planning Inspectorate assesses applications, appoints the Examining Authority and publishes procedural information, while the Secretary of State makes the final consent decision. The guidance is non-statutory and should be read alongside the Planning Act 2008 and related legislation.

Official guidance from the Planning Inspectorate outlines the domestic and European legislation governing the Planning Act 2008 process for consenting Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects in England and Wales. It summarizes the Planning Act 2008 and subsequent amendments, including the Localism Act 2011, Wales Act 2017, Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, and Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, as well as key secondary regulations covering applications, examinations, compulsory acquisition, fees, interested parties, and environmental impact assessment.