Guidance

Factsheet: Strategic planning

Published 11 March 2025

The government is committed to sustained economic growth and getting Britain building again. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is another major milestone in our reform programme.

The Bill will speed up and streamline the delivery of new homes and critical infrastructure, supporting delivery of the government’s Plan for Change milestones of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England and fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament.

It will also support delivery of the government’s Clean Power 2030 target by ensuring that key clean energy projects are built as quickly as possible.

These fact sheets are designed to inform readers on:

a) the issue specific measures are solving
b) what the Bill will do
c) what this means in practice

What is the issue?

The current planning system does not provide effective mechanisms for strategic planning across local authority boundaries. With the exception of London, most of England is not currently covered by a strategic plan. Therefore, the current system largely depends on individual local planning authorities cooperating with each other on their local plans, to address cross-boundary issues such as building the homes their communities need.

This means planning in England is undertaken on a scale that is too local, and identifying effective sustainable development locations, along with the appropriate supporting infrastructure, is not happening. The result is that as a country over at least the past 15 years, we have failed to deliver the required amount of development, notably housing, and supporting infrastructure. Measures to address the lack of strategic planning – including the Duty to Cooperate – have either failed or only been successful in parts of England.

Therefore, the government’s view is that housing need in England cannot be met without planning for growth on a larger than local scale, and that reform is needed to introduce effective new mechanisms for cross-boundary strategic planning. A nationally consistent system is needed to address the problem and set a planning framework that provides for the amount of development the country needs, notably housing, and supports the delivery of infrastructure required to support that development.

What will the Planning and Infrastructure Bill do?

The government’s ambition is to deliver the system of strategic planning across England during this Parliament. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will enable the government to introduce a system of strategic planning across England. The strategic planning tool being introduced is the Spatial Development Strategy (SDS), and this is closely modelled on the system that has been in place in London for over 20 years.

The Bill places a duty on combined authorities, combined county authorities, upper-tier county councils and unitary authorities to prepare an SDS for their area. The Bill also enables the government to establish “strategic planning boards” to prepare SDSs on behalf of specified groupings of these authorities.

The Bill will also set out the core procedural and content requirements for SDSs – including that they must include policies on the use and development of land that are of strategic importance to the area and can include policies on housing and identify infrastructure requirements.

Under an existing legal requirement, local plans must be in general conformity with SDSs that become operative under these arrangements. London will continue to produce its SDS under the provisions in the Greater London Authority Act 1999.

The strategic planning system will encourage partnership working and provide opportunities to share research, evidence and expertise that can support the efficient production of SDSs. If plans are not forthcoming to the timeframe, the Bill will also include provision to intervene in the production of an SDS. The provisions will give the Secretary of State the ability to give direction on timetables or particular policy content – such as the distribution of housing need – through to taking over the preparation of an SDS and adopting it on behalf of strategic planning authorities.

To further support a swift rollout of the new system, the government also intends to update the National Planning Policy Framework and supporting guidance to provide strategic planning authorities with a clear policy framework to work within.

Additionally, through a forthcoming English Devolution Bill, the government intends to give strategic development management powers to strategic planning authorities that have elected mayors. These powers will enable them to guide planning applications of potential strategic importance, to ensure that the overall strategy and any policies within the SDS are being implemented.

What will this mean in practice?

SDSs are produced across England, which set the strategic patterns and scales of development. SDSs will be part of the overall development plan for an area. This means that local plans will have to be in general conformity with the relevant SDS and that SDSs will be used to guide the determination of planning applications. In particular SDSs will:

• provide a spatial strategy that guides local plans and enables growth;
• identify key infrastructure requirements to enable the spatial strategy to be implemented;
• identify strategic locations for development and an indication of the scale of development required;
• Identify areas where protection or restoration of the natural environment is required; and
• apportion and distribute housing need to the most appropriate locations.

The rollout of the strategic planning system will help deliver sustainable growth and address key spatial issues such as meeting housing needs, delivering strategic infrastructure, growing the economy and improving climate resilience and nature recovery. It will also enable more efficient and timely production of local plans which will provide the detail and site allocations to support the spatial strategy set out in the SDS.

In doing this, there are opportunities for local planning authorities to engage and collaborate with strategic planning authorities and achieve efficiencies in their plan making processes. This could include sharing common evidence bases, aligning local plan production timetables and pooling resources across constituent authorities, as well as through more formal arrangement such as collaboration with Homes England through Strategic Place Partnerships.