A UK Government-commissioned feasibility assessment on building new nuclear power plants at existing Scottish nuclear sites is now unlikely to be released before the Scottish Parliament elections on 7 May. The study is expected to focus on brownfield nuclear locations such as Hunterston and Torness, assessing grid connection capacity, cooling water availability and regulatory constraints under Scotland’s current anti-nuclear policy. The delay leaves developers and consultants without key data on potential reactor siting, licensing timelines and supporting civil works for any future large-scale or SMR projects.

Mandatory biodiversity net gain (BNG) for nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) has been pushed back to November 2026, a six‑month delay from the original May 2026 start. The deferral affects DCO‑consented schemes such as major highways, rail corridors and large energy projects, which will ultimately need to evidence at least 10% biodiversity uplift using habitat units and metric‑based baselines. Designers and environmental consultants gain extra time to refine baseline surveys, habitat creation plans and long‑term management obligations before BNG becomes a legal requirement.

Ørsted has lost a UK Supreme Court case over whether it could claim tax relief on geotechnical and environmental surveys for offshore wind farms that never progressed to construction. The ruling confirms that expenditure on early-stage site investigation and feasibility work for prospective projects does not qualify as “research and development” for UK tax purposes when no tangible asset is created. Developers may now need to reprice front-end survey campaigns and reconsider how they structure pre-consent ground investigation and design studies.