Nationally significant infrastructure project

Full powers of the IPC to receive, examine and approve applications for development consent came into force on 1 March 2010.

[3] The Planning Act 2008 created a new regime for development consent for certain types of nationally significant infrastructure, including but not limited to nuclear and wind energy, airports, harbours, and wastewater projects.

[4] This new regime was intended to replace the traditional planning system and managed to reduce uncertainty around NSIP by introducing DCOs which were aimed towards increasing efficiency by reducing the amount of consent regimes required to meet development consent, as the old system required approval over several pieces of legislation.

[14] This reluctance for the approval of material amendments was strictly in line with the vigorous pre-consultation requirements under part 4 of the Planning Act 2008, which many criticisms were also directed towards.

[15][16] A report published by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government detailing a post-implementation review of the new planning system has shown that there have not been any applications for a "material change" yet.

[23] The Localism Act 2011, which received royal assent on 15 November 2011,[24] introduced further reforms towards the planning process for NSIP.

This addressed some common complaints towards the planning process, which included that the pre-consultation requirements for NSIP were too onerous and time-consuming.