Planning and Infrastructure Bill: What Farmers Need to Know
Planning and Infrastructure Bill: What Farmers Need to Know
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is the biggest shake-up of the planning system in decades. For farmers and rural landowners, some of what it contains is genuinely useful. Some of it carries real risk. Here is a clear-eyed look at what matters.
What Is the Planning and Infrastructure Bill?
The Labour government introduced the Planning and Infrastructure Bill to Parliament in March 2025. It is a wide-ranging piece of primary legislation. Its stated aim is to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery across England.
Much of the commentary has focused on housing. That focus misses what the Bill does to the rural planning environment.
The Key Changes That Affect Rural Land
Nature Recovery and Biodiversity Net Gain
The Bill proposes a major change to how biodiversity net gain (BNG) works. It creates a new framework of "Nature Recovery Plans," which would sit above individual planning applications.
In theory, this streamlines BNG delivery. In practice, it creates a new layer of strategic land designation that could restrict development options on farm holdings.
Farmers who own land with habitat or ecological value need to understand this. The designation of land under a Nature Recovery Plan could constrain future agricultural development rights — including permitted development — before any application is made.
In our experience working with landowners across Essex and the East of England, BNG is already creating friction at the pre-application stage. The Bill's proposals will add weight to that pressure, not reduce it.
The Infrastructure Levy and Rural Development
The Bill intends to reform the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) by replacing it with a new Infrastructure Levy. This levy would apply to a wider range of development.
For farmers converting buildings under Class Q or building rural workers' dwellings, the implications are significant. Where a levy applies, it adds cost and complexity to what should be straightforward applications.
The detail is not yet settled. Secondary legislation will follow. But the direction of travel is clear: the government wants to extract more value from planning permissions, including those in rural areas.
Changes to the Development Plan System
The Bill simplifies the development plan hierarchy. National Development Management Policies (NDMPs) will sit above local plans on key strategic matters.
This sounds like a technical adjustment. It is not. NDMPs could, in due course, set national rules on things like agricultural land protection, Green Belt equivalents, and rural housing. If NDMPs override local plan policies, it changes the policy landscape for rural applications fundamentally.
The NDMPs have not been published yet. That is the critical gap. We are advising clients not to assume their local plan policy environment will remain stable.
Permitted Development Rights — What the Bill Does Not Do (Yet)
The Bill does not directly reform agricultural permitted development rights under Part 6 of the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) Order 2015 (as amended).
Class Q, Class R, and the core agricultural PD rights remain as they are for now. But the Bill gives the Secretary of State broad powers to amend permitted development rights by secondary legislation without full primary legislation.
This matters. It means the government can, if it chooses, tighten or expand agricultural PD rights relatively quickly. Ministers have signalled interest in expanding PD for renewable energy installations on farms. Whether that appetite extends to Class Q remains to be seen.
What This Means for Farm Planning Applications Now
The Bill is still passing through Parliament. It has not received Royal Assent. Nothing has changed in law today.
But the direction of travel shapes how applications should be approached right now.
Submit Before Any New Constraints Land
If you have a Class Q or full planning application you have been sitting on, there is a reasonable argument for moving sooner rather than later. Nature Recovery Plan designations, if they come, will make certain sites harder to argue.
Get Your BNG Position Right
Any application submitted now must engage properly with the current BNG requirements under the Environment Act 2022. That baseline work will also position you well if the Bill's Nature Recovery framework lands in its current form.
Do Not Rely on CIL Exemptions Forever
Small self-build dwellings and some agricultural conversions currently benefit from CIL exemptions. The replacement Infrastructure Levy could change the exemption regime. Review your position before the secondary legislation closes that door.
A Practical Example
A client in north Essex came to us in early 2025 with two Class Q opportunities on a 350-acre arable holding. One barn sits adjacent to an area of wet grassland now flagged in the district's emerging Local Nature Recovery Strategy.
We advised submitting the application on the barn adjacent to the habitat area first, before any formal LNRS constraint was adopted. The application was submitted and is progressing through the LPA. The second barn is on hold pending clarity on how the Bill's Nature Recovery provisions land.
This is the kind of sequencing decision that matters in the current environment. Waiting for perfect certainty is rarely the right call.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Planning and Infrastructure Bill change Class Q barn conversions right now?
No. Class Q remains governed by Part 6, Class Q of the GPDO 2015 (as amended). The Bill does not amend those rules directly. Any future changes would come through secondary legislation, which has not been laid.
Will Nature Recovery Plans block agricultural permitted development?
There is no proposal in the Bill to suspend PD rights within Nature Recovery Plan areas. The risk is indirect: strategic habitat designations can generate policy weight that LPAs use in prior approval assessments, particularly on matters of location and design impact. It is a real risk, not a theoretical one.
When will the Planning and Infrastructure Bill become law?
The Bill is progressing through Parliament as of April 2026. Royal Assent is expected later in 2026, though the timetable is subject to Parliamentary business. Secondary legislation — which is where the practical detail will sit — will follow in stages after that.
Does the Infrastructure Levy apply to Class Q conversions?
Not yet. The Infrastructure Levy has not replaced CIL and will only apply once secondary legislation is in force. Watch for transitional arrangements, which will be critical for small-scale rural development.
The Takeaway
The Planning and Infrastructure Bill does not upend farm planning today. But it sets the direction. The window to work within the current framework — before Nature Recovery Plans, the Infrastructure Levy, and NDMPs bed in — is open now. If you have a project you have been deferring, get in touch with Foxes Rural and we will assess where it stands.