"Star Chamber’ to drive major infrastructure delivery

Spatial planning for water and a “Star Chamber at the heart of government to drive infrastructure delivery” were among proposals issued last week alongside the Autumn Statement aimed at speeding up major infrastructure development.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities explained that we need to build more infrastructure – including wind farms, roads, reservoirs, and railways – faster and cheaper. At present, costs are driven up by "delay, complexity, uncertainty, and inflexibility”.

Getting Great Britain building again promised to “bear down on the drivers of delay, high costs and inefficiency” through short-term actions to be delivered by the end of 2024 and longer term proposals to tackle some of the fundamental issues that “impose red tape, spike build costs, and slow down delivery”.

The short-term proposals were based on four themes: speed, certainty, simplicity and delivery.

Speed

Improving decision-making, making decisions faster and more consistent. This included:

• boosting recruitment and digital transformation at the Planning Inspectorate to cut five months from the consenting process;

• building capability and capacity at key local authority partners; and

• supporting 22 projects through the Innovation and Capacity fund, including water and wastewater upgrades in Hampshire, where digital mapping and analysis will support early stages of project development and improve community engagement.

Certainty

Creating more certainty for investors and developers. This included an intention to bring forward cost recovery for the NSIP consenting process by mid-2024.

Simplicity

Minimising bureaucracy and the frequency of legal challenge. This included publishing data on the geographical spread of NSIPs for the first time and exploring how to ensure infrastructure delivery is not frustrated by “inappropriate legal challenge”.

Delivery

Structuring incentives within the system to drive project delivery – and to discourage unnecessary delays.

This included the creation of a "Star Chamber" ministerial forum reporting to the prime minister and chancellor, to strengthen cross-government co-ordination of infrastructure delivery and have strategic oversight of major infrastructure projects.

Proposals for the longer term included “creating a taskforce, led across government by the chief planner, to draw conclusions by summer 2024, about the merits of adopting a more spatial planning approach in transport, water, waste and wastewater sectors, building on the approach in energy, and to set out next steps”.

Other Autumn Statement initiatives relevant for water included £2m more funding to address water scarcity in housing growth hub Cambridge; tax relief on capital expenditure; new investment zones; and actions around hydrogen.