Christy Greves MRICS, Associate Director at specialist land and environment consultancy Dalcour Maclaren, examines what the Planning and Infrastructure Act could mean for specialists planning and delivering major water infrastructure projects.
The Government’s Planning and Infrastructure Act is designed to streamline the planning system and accelerate delivery of nationally significant infrastructure by reducing delays, simplifying consenting and making processes more proportionate. For water undertakers and delivery teams, this marks a practical shift in how major schemes such as reservoirs, pipelines and desalination plants can be taken forward.
These are projects already recognised as essential to long-term water security. What changes now is the potential to move them through the system with fewer procedural barriers, shorter pre-application periods and greater flexibility in delivery models. In practice, this should help teams close the gap between strategic need and delivery.
Reframing water infrastructure as critical national infrastructure
Water infrastructure underpins economic stability, public health and environmental protection. Reservoirs, strategic pipelines and desalination plants are central to building drought resilience, managing climate variability, supporting population growth and maintaining environmental flows.
Yet, delivery has often been slower and more complex than in other infrastructure sectors. Energy and transport have benefited from more established consenting pathways and more consistent investment cycles, while water schemes – particularly large reservoirs – have faced delays linked to land access, environmental assessments and extended consultation periods.
A key factor is capacity. Water companies operate within tight regulatory and financial frameworks, requiring careful prioritisation across competing programmes. The result is a system that is robust, but often slower than the pace now required.
What the Act changes in practice
For those developing projects, the most immediate impact of the Planning and Infrastructure Act is a more proportionate approach to consenting for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs).
Faster examinations and streamlined consultation requirements are intended to reduce duplication, particularly in the pre-application phase where many delays arise.
Early-stage land access itself is rarely the limiting factor on major water projects. Instead, it is the length and cumulative burden of survey, assessment and procedural requirements that slows progress.
Where schemes remain in extended pre-application phases, proposals can hang over land for long periods, leaving landowners uncertain about future use and restricting their ability to plan, invest or manage their holdings with confidence.
The Act seeks to address this by simplifying pre-application requirements, strengthening survey access provisions and making examination processes more predictable. It also aims to reduce late-stage disruption from legal challenge, which can otherwise add uncertainty to delivery programmes.
For reservoir schemes in particular, clearer access provisions should help reduce early-stage friction and improve programme certainty.
Together, these changes are intended to help teams move more efficiently from concept to consent.
Unlocking delivery through more flexible models
A significant change in the Act is greater flexibility over how schemes are delivered. Amendments to the Planning Act 2008 allow key water infrastructure projects – including reservoirs, water resource schemes and desalination plants – to be delivered by parties appointed by water undertakers.
For delivery teams, this creates more practical options in structuring programmes. Rather than relying solely on internal capacity, there is now a clearer scope to bring in specialist partners earlier and distribute responsibility across planning, land, consenting and delivery.
Many organisations are already moving in this direction through delivery partner models, Direct Procurement for Customers (DPC), joint ventures and international collaboration, including drawing on experience from European markets with an established track record in delivering large-scale water infrastructure.
The Act provides a clearer framework to support and scale these approaches. The opportunity is not just additional capacity, but earlier integration of expertise, particularly in land strategy, consenting and stakeholder engagement supported by delivery partners accustomed to operating at scale and pace. However, this will only deliver value if organisations actively use the flexibility available. It requires a shift towards more shared, outcome-focused delivery models.
Making delivery more predictable
Stakeholder engagement remains central to successful delivery. And communities, landowners and environmental groups continue to play a critical role in shaping viable schemes.
What is changing is the expectation of earlier, more focused and more proportionate engagement, rather than extended iterative consultation cycles that can slow progress without improving outcomes.
This creates a clear opportunity to strengthen early optioneering. Bringing together land, environmental and engineering input from the outset helps identify constraints earlier and reduces the risk of redesign later in the process.
Projects taking this integrated approach will likely be better placed to move through consenting with fewer delays and fewer late-stage issues.
To take full advantage of the new framework, water authorities may need to invest more in front-end development, particularly integrated planning, specialist input and stronger programme management.
A moment to reset delivery expectations
The Planning and Infrastructure Act appears to create a more enabling environment for water infrastructure delivery. It offers clearer consenting pathways, reduced procedural burden and greater flexibility in delivery structures.
For delivery organisations, the key question is how quickly these tools are used.
Those who adapt early, by strengthening front-end capability and using more flexible delivery models and integrating expertise earlier, are likely to see the greatest gains in certainty and speed.
Other infrastructure sectors have shown that complexity does not have to mean delay. The opportunity now is to apply that same approach to water infrastructure, ensuring essential schemes are delivered with the pace and certainty required for long-term resilience.
