Our Chief Strategy Officer Will Gallagher met with Government ministers to discuss how the new Planning and Infrastructure Act will help deliver critical infrastructure more quickly and improve public engagement during the planning process.
Will joined fellow infrastructure providers, including Water UK, National Grid and Renewables UK, to discuss the new legislation at a ministerial roundtable event.
The Act, which became law just before Christmas, aims to streamline the planning system to help deliver railways, roads and homes more quickly, while improving the quality of public engagement.
For East West Rail, which is one of the first projects to operate under the new legislation, the changes mean communities could benefit from the railway’s economic and social impacts sooner. Crucially, the legislation also supports more flexible and locally focused engagement.
As a result, we have launched a series of Design Update Sessions to discuss emerging proposals directly with communities along the route. While the Act removes the requirement for a statutory consultation ahead of submitting a formal application to build the railway – a Development Consent Order – we will still undertake a full route-wide consultation this spring.
Will Gallagher said: “We had a really productive discussion about how we implement the new Planning and Infrastructure Act to maximise its benefits - both to speed up the opening of EWR by making the planning process simpler and quicker, and also to make sure local communities get high quality ongoing engagement rather than just a single statutory consultation.”