Landmark Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 has received royal assent, giving ministers new powers to accelerate major roads, rail schemes, reservoirs, windfarms and grid connections, and underpinning Labour’s target of 1.5 million new homes. Key measures include a Nature Restoration Fund for centralised biodiversity offsetting, streamlined judicial review with only one court challenge allowed on meritless major project cases, and reformed local authority planning committees pushing smaller schemes to officers. The Act also simplifies EV charger approvals, eases compulsory purchase, and offers up to £250/year electricity bill discounts for 10 years to households near new pylons.

Ontario and Canada have signed a “one project, one review” agreement to coordinate federal and provincial environmental and impact assessments, targeting long-delayed mining and infrastructure schemes in the Ring of Fire and other critical mineral districts. The deal dovetails with Ontario’s One Project, One Process (1P1P) framework, which aims to cut mine approval timelines from up to 15 years to a maximum of two years, with Frontier Lithium’s PAK project the first pilot. For geotechnical and mining teams, the move signals materially shorter permitting horizons for cobalt, lithium, nickel and copper projects backed by a C$500 million processing fund.

The Planning and Infrastructure Act has received Royal Assent, bringing into force a wide package of reforms aimed at accelerating housing delivery and major infrastructure consenting across the UK. Measures include streamlining Development Consent Order processes for nationally significant projects and tightening statutory timescales for planning decisions, with the intention of reducing multi‑year delays on large transport, energy and water schemes. For engineers, the changes signal pressure to front‑load design, environmental assessment and geotechnical risk work to meet shorter pre‑construction and examination windows.