Welcome to 2026: EDCEB, Changes to NSIPs, Consultations Closing and the promise of more to come

The new year is traditionally a time for making resolutions, setting new habits and reflection. Unfortunately, 2026 has not yet provided me with that luxury.

Instead my year has started with appeal deadlines, school closures and a large number of “next year issues” cropping up much faster than anticipated. All of which is my explanation for this blog being a day or two late…*

Anyway, now that is out of the way, I thought it would be a good idea to start the year with a little bit of a round-up of what is currently going on, a reminder of upcoming deadlines and, of course, some news. So grab a cuppa and settle in – we have a fair amount to catch up on!

Upcoming Consultation Deadlines

Let’s start with the diary reminders:

• MHCLG’s consultation on reforms to the statutory consultee system closes at 11:59pm on 13 January 2026
• The MHCLG Consultation on supporting housebuilding in London closes at 11:59pm on 22 January 2026
• The MHCLG call for evidence on changing planning rules to make it faster to build digital infrastructure closes at
  11:59pm on 26 February 2026
• The consultation on the New NPPF (featuring NDMPS) closes at 11:45pm on 10 March 2026 ; and finally
• This one isn’t technically a consultation, but nonetheless – The Planner’s Women of Influence Nominations close on 20 January 2026. If, like me, you have been slow to get your nominations in** – now is the time!

Now that the admin is out of the way, let’s crack on.

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

A New Year brings a new bill to track. Now that the Planning & Infrastructure Bill has become the Planning & Infrastructure Act, we can start paying a bit more attention to the second “doorstop” of a planning bill working its way through parliament: The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill or EDCEB.

EDCEB is the bill which is tasked with reshaping local government across England, creating strategic mayoral authorities; and (somewhat bizarrely) ban upwards only rent reviews and beef up the Assets of Community Value regime in England.

To date, it has largely been overshadowed by PIA, but 2026 is the year that it can step into the limelight.

EDCEB is due to enter committee stage in the House of Lords on 20 January 2026 and, if the Hansard report of its second reading is anything to go by, it is going to be an interesting set of debates.

We have already had the following quotes and they haven’t even started the committee sessions as yet:

“Uncertainty, particularly in planning, is the enemy of delivery. If responsibilities for housing, infrastructure and spatial strategy are to shift, the transition must be clear, orderly and transparent. Developers, councils and communities need certainty, not disruption.” – Baroness Scott of Bybrook

“development corporations can take on planning powers, land acquisition and development powers. They will be single-minded and focused on achieving new housing and all the related infrastructure. This will create an alternative to the nation’s current total reliance on a small number of volume housebuilders who plan, design and provide most of this country’s new housing development but who so often fail us in what they produce.” – Lord Best

“My Lords, I think I have just entered a parallel universe. The real clue to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill lies in its title. ” – Baroness Griffin of Princethorpe

I think it is safe to say that EDCEB will definitely be a bill to watch over the next few months!

Secondary Legislation: Data centres can be NSIPS and a PIA Recap

The last few weeks have also brought to important pieces of secondary legislation, which we all need to be aware of:

• The Infrastructure Planning (Business or Commercial Projects) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 which came into effect on 8 January 2026 – and which allow data centres to be promoted as NSIPs for the first time; and
• The Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 (Commencement No. 9) and Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (Commencement No. 1 and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2025 which were made on 18 December 2025 – and which I have written about in more detail here.

A quick look ahead – if you can face it…

Thinking ahead for a moment, I think I can confidently predict that 2026 is going to be a fairly busy year – or at least one in which we will be grappling with a lot of changes.

We now have two major pieces of planning legislation on the statute books that have not been fully implemented, so I would not be surprised if we got a lot more enabling legislation over the coming weeks and months.

Not least as many of the parts of LURA that remain un-implemented (30 month local plans, s.73B, build-out rate tracking) have been promised ‘early this year’; and it is clear that MHCLG are keen to get the planning elements of PIA (as well as those relating to EDPs and the Nature Recovery Fund) up and running as quickly as possible.

Whilst the consultation on the new NPPF runs until March, I have heard on the grapevine*! that MHCLG are hoping to avoid a lengthy delay between the consultation closing and introducing the new style framework – which means that we are also likely to be working with the new NPPF before the year is out.

And that is before we get into the influential cases working their way through the planning courts – including a couple dealing with Grey Belt Policy!

So I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready to hit the ground running…. or at least has reliable childcare and access to a good coffee machine… as I think we are in for another exciting, rock and roll, year of Town and Country Planning!

* too late, in fact, for me to say “Happy New Year!”. But it is the first blog of the year, so I am going to say it anyway: Happy New Year!

** The nominations are for any woman in planning who has improved your life over the last year – from a line manager who has had your back/ been your rock, to a chief planner who has championed your department, to a planning barrister who has been there every step of the way on a difficult project. Please don’t nominate me though – as that would be awkward!

*! I do love a well-informed rumour mill 🙂