Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour). It was answered on Wednesday, 9 September 2026.

National Infrastructure Projects: Devolution

Question: Thank you. As I was saying, we know that infrastructure development in this country is more expensive than in many other developed countries and takes longer, mainly due to our planning system and the way that regulators in this country are risk-averse and often work in silos. Can my noble friend explain what the Government are doing further to the Planning and Infrastructure Act to improve this?

Answer: We now have the Planning and Infrastructure Act, which removes some of the obstacles that were causing delays in the planning system, but we have also recently republished the National Planning Policy Framework. It is now a much more straightforward, rules-based system of planning which we hope will make the planning system run more smoothly while removing some of the jeopardy around JRs and so on in the planning system. That, alongside investment in planning officers and the planning system, will make a real difference.

Secondary information

Type: Oral question
Reference: 859 c706
Session: 2026-27
Oral question type: Supplementary
Chamber / Committee: House of Lords chamber
Subjects: Devolved matters Finance Infrastructure Planning Water supply Mayors
Link: View this Oral question on hansard.parliament.uk