Planning matters

On 18 November 2025, the Government issued its consultation on proposed reforms to the statutory consultee system[1]. In the Ministers foreword, he highlights that reform is necessary as the system is neither effective, proactive or proportional – a damning opening statement and a blunt reality check for all statutory players in the planning and development process. Paralleling this need for change, is the Government’s clearly stated demand that the statutory consultation system requires reform, so it more closely aligns with its core Mission focused on development and economic growth objectives[2].  Complementing this focus, the paper highlights the need for ‘the statutory requirement to consult’ in future being limited only to those instances where it is necessary to do so thereby removing much unnecessary, wasteful ‘red tape’.

 

In reviewing the consultation document, the impression is that the Government is seeking to ensure that the statutory consultation system is changed so that it does not hinder development or economic growth.  However, it is my view that the Government’s planned reforms could be bolder. These reforms could reboot the system to actively enable growth and development so that consultation goes with the grain alongside new Local Plan, spatial development strategies and DCO processes. This raises significant implications for National Highways which the Government rightly acknowledges is the custodian of the Strategic Road Network (SRN) which is both a physical asset of ‘national importance’ and forms part of the country’s ‘critical national infrastructure’. Consequently, from an economic and development perspective, National Highways is one of if not the most important statutory consultees that can proactively enable growth if the Government empowers it to do so.

 

The uniqueness of National Highways as a critical agent for growth is reflected by the fact that as well as being a statutory consultee in the planning and development process, the company also plays the dual role of being an applicant for major highway DCOs. These important in-house skills could be harnessed to help add value to the consideration of major development proposals which have implications for the SRN.   

From a speech made by the Prime Minister last week (‘Britain Built for all’[3]), it is clear the Government is serious about rolling out significant change across all statutory functions which interact with businesses, developers, investors and other key drivers of the country’s capacity to generate economic growth.

 

If the Government wants to be known as one that introduced a planning framework that quickly approves new transport infrastructure, data centres, power stations or even whole new towns, then it requires a statutory consultation system that is aligned accordingly – one which is proactive and enabling with a can-do, industry-facing personality.

 

The Prime Minister made direct reference to the John Fingleton review of the UK’s nuclear industry. He extracted a blunt quote from the Fingleton report which stated that the nuclear industry faces "a mindset that favours process over outcome". The PM also drew attention to the economically draining effects of ‘pointless gold plating’ which characterises chunks of the statutory consultation system.

In working closely with National Highways, Lichfields has experienced a strong sense of willingness and drive to adapt their role as a statutory consultee toward one more aligned with enabling growth. Indeed, as highlighted by Matthew Pennycook MP in the consultation document, National Highways has already taken positive steps to enable and accelerate growth with measures including:

• establishing a housing applications taskforce.
   
• promptly addressing applications which have been subject to a holding objection for more than 9 months.
   
•  introducing improvement to its spatial planning services including the proposed introduction of a new triage service to quickly prioritise proposals which are likely to have a safety impact on trunk roads. 

In addition, the Government proposes to limit referrals to National Highways only for developments that require a transport assessment. This is long overdue, but its effectiveness will depend on the clarity, focus and prioritisation adopted in the collaborative efforts by MHCLG and DfT to update guidance on when a transport assessment is required.

These proposals come on top of the updated NPPF which addresses to an extent, the ‘gold-plating’ issue by highlighting that development should only be prevented (by National Highways) should there be an unacceptable impact on highway safety in “all tested scenarios”. This is an important shift in policy, as development proposals historically have been assessed against a ‘worst-case scenario’ in terms of road network impact which typically reflects the traditional ‘predict and provide’ approach to transport assessments. Not only has this led to the build-up of unnecessary referrals requiring National Highway’s intervention but ultimately diminishes the capacity of the company to focus on the most important development proposals which actively support economic growth or compromise safety and operational efficiency. 

 

With a fair tail wind, these measures could combine to help National Highways focus on and prioritise major development proposals and substantially reduce the need for paralysing holding objections. They also open the door to a Vision-led approach to integrated land-use and transport planning in which National Highways should be a key player. 

 

In seeking changes to the statutory consultee system, the Government highlights for National Highways that ‘it is vital that the impacts of proposed developments on the operation and safety of the network can be managed effectively.’ I would go further to state that SRN ‘operation’ should explicitly include the need for National Highways to be proactive in enabling economic growth.

In previous research (The Road Ahead: The role of National Highways in economic growth and housing delivery), we have highlighted the potential for the company to play a much more significant and positive role in enabling place-based and national economic growth. This potential can, in part, be realised if Government provides National Highways (and other statutory consultees) with a direct remit to act in helping stimulate and accelerate economic growth. This Consultation is a first step in the right direction.

 

The Government’s plans for growth are expected to result in a glut of new local plans, the development of which should include National Highways as a collaborative partner.  These will be accompanied by new local growth plans, spatial development strategies, local government reorganisation, enhanced devolution and a latent rush of major development and DCO applications. Consequently, if the Government wishes statutory consultees to actively lean into the growth agenda, it must do more than streamline processes and reduce pointless administrative burdens albeit acknowledging such measures are essential. 

I would advocate the Government giving relevant statutory consultees like National Highways, an unambiguous remit to proactively support development that can deliver growth alongside the core responsibilities of safety and operational efficiency. Taking on such a role inevitably would require changes to and reorganisation of National Highways’ internal structures not least its approach to delivery of spatial planning services. For example, the triage service could be extended to provide a prioritisation channel for schemes with major growth implications.  It could also be used to provide a central platform for ensuring greater consistency across the country in the application of National Highways statutory consultee functions.  

 

Importantly, for the plan making process, local authorities should also be proactive and less prohibitively cautious by partnering with National Highways at the embryonic stage to find early highways-related solutions with developers in a positive and co-ordinated manner. For major development proposals, all parties should be supported in positive and early pre-application collaboration.  Hopefully some of the measures being proposed in the consultation document will work in favour of such an approach. However, the Government could go further and give National Highways and other relevant statutory consultees a direct job to do in enabling growth.