A new era of consultation for major infrastructure projects

At the end of last year, the Planning and Infrastructure Act removed requirements for consultation on nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs).

However, the requirements remained in place until new guidance could be published. This Monday was the annual NIPA conference, where developers and consultants who work on NSIPs come together to discuss key issues, so it was convenient that the updated guidance arrived just in time. 

Anna Payne from MHCLG gave the keynote speech, explaining the updated guidance and how it would support the Government’s intention to expedite NSIPs to meet national targets for energy and infrastructure. The goal was to remove the tick-box requirements for consultation that had resulted in excessive costs and delays, while retaining the intention that developers have meaningful consultation and engagement in the development of their projects.

As we had hoped it would, the new guidance does not create a new overly restrictive framework that would result in a new tick-box exercise, but leaves developers room to decide what meaningful consultation and engagement should look like. 

Later panels, including one with local government and another with the key technical bodies, highlighted their concerns that this would mean they would be cut out of the process, only to be included during the examination stage when it would be too late to make meaningful changes to developments. They called for developers to continue to engage early, often, and throughout development. Despite cost recovery mechanisms, they explained that they are still under-resourced and asked for developers to come with clear timelines for when critical information would be available for consultation.

One panel I particularly enjoyed included an academic perspective on consultation from Hannah Hickman and Katie McClymont from UWE. Having analysed 41 consultation reports and surveyed developers, consultants, and consultees, they had some interesting perspectives to share about what good consultation looks like. They highlighted that the purpose of consultation is to identify key issues and resolve them prior to submission to increase consentability and to meet requirements including those in the EIA regulations which remain. 

They also highlighted a more emotional standard, whereby consultation supports democratic values and inclusivity for local communities. They explained that developers define successful consultation by pointing to specific changes made to a development, while communities focus on good consultation as a mechanism to be taken seriously and heard. 

Overall, I would say that the feeling from the conference was very positive, and there was general support that the updated guidance would help these projects move faster while ensuring high quality applications.

As the new guidance takes effect at the end of this month, we are keen to work with our clients, stakeholders and local communities to build on best practice for consultation, to continue to develop new innovative ways to engage, and to support these projects through the next stage of consultation.