Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025: Key Takeaways for SME Property Developers
CrowdProperty outlines what the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 means for smaller developers. The Act is a broad reform intended to speed up housing delivery and remove obstacles to infrastructure in England. It received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, but most provisions need secondary legislation or guidance before they affect day-to-day development, so there is no immediate change to how planning applications work.
The main areas relevant to SMEs are:
• Planning fees: councils will be able to set their own application fees to improve resourcing. This may mean higher upfront costs in some areas, potentially offset by quicker, more predictable decisions.
• Planning committees: more delegated decision-making and mandatory training for committee members, which could reduce delays for smaller, straightforward schemes.
• Spatial Development Strategies: new cross-boundary plans linking housing growth to infrastructure, which may give clearer signals about where development will be supported.
• Nature Restoration Fund: environmental mitigation secured through a levy administered by Natural England. Levy rates and qualifying developments are yet to be set.
Reforms to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime are unlikely to affect SMEs directly.
CrowdProperty expects change to arrive gradually: commencement regulations and initial guidance in early 2026, revised fee rules, spatial strategies and Nature Restoration Fund guidance from mid to late 2026, and strategic planning becoming embedded from 2027.
Its suggested steps include following commencement regulations closely, building fee and levy contingencies into appraisals, engaging early with planning consultants, ecologists and councils, testing sites against emerging strategic priorities, allowing flexibility in timelines, and recording determination times and costs as a benchmark. The article concludes that immediate impact is limited, but developers who stay informed and adaptable will be best placed through 2026 and beyond.
