Planning Act 2025 changes to strategy and marine plans
This is one of those legal updates that looks small on paper and still matters. On 6 July 2026, the Government made the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026, and they come into force on 16 July 2026. The Secretary of State used powers in section 58(4) and (5) of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, and the draft had already been approved by both Houses of Parliament. It was signed by housing minister Matthew Pennycook for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. If you are wondering why a short statutory instrument deserves attention, the answer is simple: major planning reforms only work if the rest of the law is adjusted to match them. That is what these regulations do.
The explanatory note on legislation.gov.uk says the trigger is Part 1A of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, inserted by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. That new part requires strategic planning authorities to prepare a spatial development strategy. A spatial development strategy is the wider plan for how an area should grow across council boundaries. It is about the shape of development over time: where homes, jobs, transport links and other major priorities fit together. **What this means:** planning is being pushed up to a broader level, so neighbouring places are expected to think beyond their own patch.
Regulation 2 amends section 114 of the 2004 Act. In practice, it means the examination of a spatial development strategy under Part 1A is treated as a statutory inquiry for the purposes of the Tribunal and Inquiries Act 1992. That sounds technical, but it matters because procedure shapes fairness. The explanatory note says this change allows the Lord Chancellor to make procedural rules for these examinations. **What this means:** the process is meant to be more formal, more consistent and easier to follow when a strategy is tested.
Regulation 3 turns to the coast. It amends Schedule 6 to the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 so a marine plan authority must notify any strategic planning authority that is required to prepare a spatial development strategy for an adjoining or adjacent area. That is a tidy sentence with a real-world effect. Land planning and marine planning often meet in the same places: ports, flood protection, coastal housing, habitats and energy projects do not stop at the shoreline. **What this means:** if a marine plan is starting next door, the relevant strategic planning authority should know early enough to respond.
There is also a legal detail worth slowing down for. These regulations are filed under town and country planning in England, but they extend to England and Wales. That can feel confusing at first glance. The reason is that the instrument amends wider Acts of Parliament, even though the planning reform it supports sits in the English strategic planning system created by the 2025 Act. For anyone learning how legislation works, this is a useful reminder that a law's territorial extent and its policy focus are not always identical.
The note attached to the regulations says no full impact assessment has been produced because no significant effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected. Instead, the Government points readers back to the impact assessment prepared for the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. That does not mean the change is unimportant. It means ministers see it as a follow-on measure rather than a fresh policy shift. In plain English, this is system maintenance: making sure the new planning rules have the right procedures and the right people in the loop.
If you teach, study or simply track public policy, this instrument is a strong example of how reform often works in practice. The headline Act sets the direction, then later regulations deal with the mechanics: who gets notified, which legal process applies and how separate planning systems are expected to speak to each other. So yes, this is a short statutory instrument. But from 16 July 2026 it does three clear things: it supports the new spatial development strategy system, it gives examinations a formal inquiry route and it brings marine planners and strategic land planners into earlier contact.