Since getting into government in July 2024, one of the key things that it has focused on is easing planning, through its National Planning Policy Framework, which was published in December 2024, and its Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is currently going through parliament.
The key reason it has focused so much on easing planning is that major projects in the UK take far too long and are far too expensive. The larger the project, the more time delays and cost overruns there are. Although people criticise construction, many delays and costs occur well before main construction begins.
One prime example is the Lower Thames Crossing, two 14.5 mile road tunnels running underneath the River Thames, which finally received a Development Consent Order (DCO) in March after many delays.
Main construction work on this supposedly £9.4 billion project is likely to only start in 2027 but £1.2 billion has already been spent on it.
According to a recent Freedom of Information (FOI) request to National Highways, £267 million has so far been spent on gaining Development Consent Orders for the project, and a further £161 million has been spent on establishing the commercial and project integration teams.
It has become an infamous project. The total amount of planning documents for the Lower Thames project come to 359,000 pages. And, apparently, if you printed them out, they would weigh more than a tonne, although obviously, I haven’t tested it.
Just as concerning is that £29 million has been spent on public and stakeholder consultations.
This isn’t sustainable. In practical terms, if we are going to build the energy, water and transport infrastructure, plus the social infrastructure (schools, hospitals and prisons) that we will need now and we will need in the future, then a lot of the waste, delays and admin/bureaucracy plus the endless consultations and reviews will have be cut out.
Unsurprisingly, people that make lots of money from the consultations, reviews, pauses, delays and waste won’t like it. Plus, many people that have been used to using any excuse, any loophole or any trick in the planning system to delay and add extra costs through more mitigations won’t be happy either.
But, in general, it is about providing the best possible infrastructure for the majority of the country. We don’t build it just for the sake of it. It is there to provide the infrastructure we need. And, for far too long, it has been needlessly expensive and only rising even further in cost as time goes on.
