Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects and the Planning and Infrastructure Bill: A move in the wrong direction

Abstract

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill aims to speed up the planning process and associated decision-making. Part 1 of the Bill introduces changes in the context of Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) that warrant attention. First, the Bill removes the legal duty to consult at the pre-application stage of the NSIP development consent process. In particular it removes the public's legal right to participate at this stage. Second, it makes changes to the judicial review process which raise questions over the balance between the swift administration of justice and access to justice. This commentary argues that combined the proposed reforms reflect a move that supports a rhetoric of ‘challenge culture’.1This rhetoric positions procedural and administrative law as an obstacle to infrastructure development and is something we should not ignore.