What the Planning and Infrastructure Act means for project delivery
The Planning and Infrastructure Act (PIA) has received Royal Assent. While transition plans are underway, Andrew Weaver, director, examines how the PIA, designed to accelerate infrastructure project delivery, helps reframe the pre-application consultation process.
Removing the legislative requirement for consultation
Changing the legislative requirement for consultation is a key pillar of the PIA. Removing sections 42, 43, 44 and 47 of the Planning Act 2008 (PA 2008) and amending sections 46 and 48 effectively moves pre-application consultation from legislation into guidance and secondary legislation. While we don’t yet know what the guidance and secondary legislation will contain, it could be similar to the requirements in current legislation.
In a bid to reduce the risk of challenge, developers have felt the need to over-engineer consultation programmes, which costs developers, stakeholders and the public time and resources. The changes in the PIA aim to reduce concern about complying with the ‘letter of the law’ during consultation, thus allowing greater flexibility.
There has been, and will continue to be, debate about whether the changes will have the desired effect. Will they create more ambiguity and opportunities for legal challenge or allow greater flexibility in the delivery of consultation without stringent requirements?
Either way, this change marks a significant shift for a sector that initially struggled to adapt to the requirement for public consultation when the PA 2008 first appeared.
A few myths to debunk
The changes provide a good opportunity to address some myths about consultation on infrastructure projects.
- Without a legislative requirement, developers will decide not to consult: The Government have made it clear that they “still expect high-quality early, meaningful and constructive engagement and consultation to take place with those affected by NSIP proposals, thereby enabling positive changes to be made to them without causing undue delays”. While there is no adequacy-of-consultation test at the point of submission, there will be a quality test. It is highly unlikely this quality test will be achieved without meaningful and authentic pre-application consultation and a clear demonstration of how feedback has influenced the final application design.
- Consultation represents a major risk to gaining consent: On the contrary, the very nature of pre-application consultation reduces the risk to the consenting process. It allows key issues to be raised at a formative stage in the project development process, so they can be addressed before an application is submitted. It also opens the door to positive dialogue between developers and local stakeholders about the opportunities a project could offer and about whether to mitigate impacts or to genuinely contribute to a community or social benefit.
- Consultation needs to be formulaic and tick-box to minimise the risk of challenge: Legislation and guidance often set out the requirements consultation must meet. But this doesn’t dictate the form and nature of consultation. What to consult on. When to consult. How widely to consult. Channels to use. The balance of in-person and digital methods. How best to gather and respond to feedback. These and many other strategic decisions are now in the developer’s gift. The key to success is a strong consultation strategy that seeks to address issues and push a project forward to delivery.
- Consultation takes time and slows the process: Rarely does the time spent consulting people slow a project programme. Usually, the required inputs to and, crucially, the outputs from a consultation and any consequent changes determine the programme and when consultation can take place. Working closely as a project team to properly scope consultation and understand the give-gets across workstreams is critical to ensuring consultation is an integral part of the programme, rather than a bolt-on.
Responding to the need for speed
The legislative changes reflect a clear direction: speed matters. If you’re unsure about how the changes to the PIA may affect your project, perhaps consider the following:
- Take a strategic approach to consultation to accelerate delivery: Making consultation delivery a strategic decision is critical. It allows you to plan and structure efforts, so consultation is targeted, proportionate and aligned with project milestones. Importantly, it sets and focuses consultation on desired outcomes instead of lengthy, repetitive processes that waste time and resources.
- Use data-driven methods and models to identify efficiencies and deliver more valuable consultation outcomes: By analysing demographics, engagement patterns and cross-sector feedback trends related to a project, we can focus consultation where it adds the most value. This will help you select channels and approaches that make consultation effective and meaningful and avoid over-engineering the process.
- Achieve a quicker process by embracing digital: Digital platforms are frequently being used by stakeholders and communities to communicate. Be where the conversation is taking place. Use digital engagement platforms, virtual exhibitions, webinars, chatbots and targeted social media campaigns to turn consultation from a bottleneck into a programme driver. Artificial intelligence (AI) can also be used to remove subjectivity from consultation feedback and instantly capture a snapshot of sentiment.
- Speed up pre-application consultation without sacrificing quality: The quality of consultation materials can often define the success of a consultation – did everyone understand what they were being asked? Transparent, accessible and well-communicated materials often save time compared with complex, jargon-heavy documents. Videos, animations, infographics and explainers ensure content is accessible and concise, building understanding and leading to better outcomes for consultation feedback.
- Consult in different ways: There are usually several ways of achieving outcomes, so blend traditional and digital methods to tailor your consultation strategy to each project. Using early co-design with communities and stakeholders can shape proposals, boost buy-in, reduce objections and improve designs. Ultimately, it is about making consultation a problem-solving tool, not just a tick-box exercise.
- Never mistake consultation for engagement: Consultation is the formal process of asking and capturing feedback. Engagement is an ongoing conversation about the project – it’s about strategic communications, compelling storytelling, making projects feel human and building genuine support. Both consultation and engagement are essential for securing consent.
Project decision-makers are democratically elected and never more than a few years away from the next election. Without public and stakeholder backing, we’re asking politicians to take a significant risk at the ballot box – at a time when political discourse is tense, fragile and increasingly populist.
The infrastructure industry should see the PIA as a call to action. It’s not just a nudge to do things differently: it’s a mandate and a call to action. Considering consultation at the strategic level, as a positive part of the planning process, can help accelerate and give certainty to programmes, manage risk and contribute towards the social licence needed to deliver a successful development.
Copper is hosting a series of roundtables on the PIA in 2026. If you’re interested in attending, please contact andrew.weaver@copperconsultancy.com