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Chris Ball
UK & Ireland President, Bristol, UK contact form
Planning is one of the UK's most powerful tools for delivering growth. It shapes where homes are built, how infrastructure is delivered and how communities evolve. But when planning lacks certainty, investment slows and delivery stalls.
In this context, uncertainty extends beyond planning determination times and includes confidence in decision making, policy stability, project viability, infrastructure provision and the ability to move successfully from consent through to delivery.
At a time when investment is critical to economic growth and prosperity, and to delivering the infrastructure that helps places thrive, understanding the causes of delay and uncertainty has never been more important. Against a backdrop of mounting pressure on the planning system, AtkinsRéalis commissioned this research to explore where these challenges arise and how they can be addressed.
Building on the findings of our report, De-risk, Incentivise, Deliver: Funding UK Infrastructure for Growth, this research draws on a sector-wide survey and insights from industry stakeholders to examine the factors influencing confidence, investment and delivery across the planning system.
The findings paint a nuanced picture, revealing a system experiencing cumulative friction across multiple stages, from local authority capacity and statutory consultee engagement through to infrastructure coordination, viability and delivery. Planning is often presented as the primary barrier to growth, but our findings suggest the reality is more complex: there is no single cause of delay, but multiple factors influencing confidence, investment and delivery outcomes.
What emerges most clearly is that speed alone is not the issue. Rather, investors, planners, policymakers and delivery partners value certainty, consistency and clarity.
There are encouraging signs that progress is being made. Recent reforms, including changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), the Planning and Infrastructure Act and the expansion of government’s devolution agenda, all seek to create a more coordinated and delivery-focused system. Many of the themes identified through this research are already being addressed through ongoing policy change.
The priority now is to ensure that recent reforms are implemented effectively, given time to bed in, and supported by the resources and ways of working needed to improve delivery.
Achieving greater certainty depends not only on the policy framework, but on how people work within it. It requires investment in skills and capability, more collaborative and delivery-focused behaviours, and the effective use of digital tools to support consistency and productivity across the planning process.
This report forms part of a wider conversation. Continued engagement with key industry stakeholders will be essential to strengthening confidence in the UK’s planning and development pipeline, as well as identifying the next steps required to support long-term investment and infrastructure delivery.
Planning at pace is not simply about faster decisions. It is about creating a system that gives investors, communities and decision-makers sufficient certainty to move confidently from strategy to consent, and from consent to delivery.
The findings in this report demonstrate that there is no single solution, but they also point to a clear opportunity. Planning reform is under way, awareness of the challenges is growing, and there is increasing recognition of the need for greater collaboration across the public and private sectors.
By building on that momentum, the UK has a real opportunity to create the certainty needed to unlock investment and deliver the infrastructure and homes that will support long-term growth. Working together, the sector can help ensure that planning is viewed not as a constraint on progress, but as a catalyst for thriving places and communities.
Read the full report: Planning at Pace: Creating certainty for investment and delivery
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