What does the pledge mean?

In the Labour government’s “Plan for Change”, unveiled in December 2024, the government committed to “fast-tracking planning decisions on at least 150 major economic infrastructure projects”.

While the Plan for Change didn’t define “fast-tracking” or outline specifically what counted as a “major economic infrastructure project”, in April 2025 housing minister Matthew Pennycook said that the pledge related to “Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects” (NSIPs).

NSIPs are “large scale major development projects” in England, in the fields of energy, transport, waste, wastewater and water, such as new roads and railway lines, offshore wind farms or reservoirs—if these meet certain criteria. Business or commercial projects may also be considered NSIPs if the relevant secretary of state decides they are of national significance. (The process applies to a limited extent in Wales.)

Applications for these projects are made to the Planning Inspectorate’s National Infrastructure Planning Unit. The Planning Inspectorate is an executive agency of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

The Planning Inspectorate assesses applications for NSIPs and makes a recommendation to the relevant secretary of state, who decides whether or not to grant a Development Consent Order (DCO) to the project in question, in line with the Planning Act 2008. The Planning Inspectorate told Full Fact that the government’s decision doesn’t always align with the body’s recommendation.

Decisions on NSIP applications can take a while. Applicants are required to undertake consultation before an application can be made, and the various stages the Planning Inspectorate and its Examining Authority are responsible for can take over a year. The government then has up to three months to reach a verdict.

For example, an application was made for the A46 Newark Bypass on 26 April 2024, and the project received approval on 1 October 2025. Another project, Sunnica Energy Farm, received approval on 12 July 2025 after its application was made on 18 November 2021.

The government promise, however, did not specify the 150 NSIPs had to be approved—but merely that a decision on whether to build them or not be made. We asked the MHCLG to confirm that rejected applications are included in the target of 150.

The government said the deadline for this pledge is the end of this parliament, which will occur no later than July 2029.

What progress has been made?

We are rating this pledge as “in progress”. According to the Planning Inspectorate, 26 decisions on NSIPs were made between Labour forming a government on 4 July 2024 and 9 October 2025, 25 of which were approved—including a second runway at Gatwick Airport.

This means that 124 decisions still need to be made before Labour’s pledge is achieved—and that the pace will have to increase in order for this target to be met.

The April 2025 statement issued by Mr Pennycook said applications were “already being processed on average 50 days quicker than in the last Parliament”, but acknowledged that the system remained “too slow”.

The government has said it believes the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, which is currently progressing through Parliament, will “speed up and streamline” the delivery of “critical infrastructure” and will support fast-tracking decisions on 150 NSIPs.

In September 2025, the government opened a consultation on the planning process for NSIPs.