Transport and Works rules change on 20 November 2026

The new Transport and Works regulations look technical, but the basic story is fairly clear once you strip away the legal wording. A statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk was made on 27 October 2026, laid before Parliament on 30 October 2026 and comes into force on 20 November 2026. It updates the rules used for transport and works orders in England and Wales, the system used for certain transport and inland waterway projects under the Transport and Works Act 1992. If you are trying to work out what actually changes, think of this as a timetable and paperwork reform. The Government is tightening parts of the application, objection, inquiry and decision process, while also adding clearer rules for cases that involve listed buildings, conservation areas or marine licences.

The regulations do not hit every case in exactly the same way. For applications made on or after 20 November 2026, all of the new rules apply. For applications made before 20 November 2026, only some inquiry-rule changes apply if a key written notice has not yet been issued. Older cases already further through the system stay under the old rules. That matters because it stops the new timetable being dropped awkwardly into cases that are nearly finished. It also means anyone following a live project will need to check its application date before assuming the shorter deadlines apply.

One of the biggest shifts is in the inquiry process. Under the amended inquiry rules, the inspector must now set a closing date for the inquiry no later than three months after it starts. If there is a pre-inquiry meeting, that closing date still has to be fixed, and it still has to land within that three-month window. The closing date can be varied or suspended later, but only with the consent of the Secretary of State. Another early step is also shortened. The time allowed under rule 7(6) falls from 12 to 10. The notice of inquiry must now tell people not just the date, time and place, but also the date by which the inquiry must close. **What this means:** inquiries are still available, but they are meant to run to a tighter schedule from the start.

The rules also put firmer deadlines on what happens after an inquiry ends. The inspector now has to produce the report within three months of the inquiry being completed. After that, the Secretary of State must determine the application within three months of receiving the report, or within three months of receiving any last extra information requested after the report arrives. This is one of the clearest practical changes in the whole instrument. People involved in a case should now get a stated determination date, rather than being left with a much vaguer sense of when a decision might turn up. If extra time is allowed, the applicant and objectors must be told the revised date as well.

For objections and written representations, the timetable becomes sharper, especially in England. The objection period moves from 42 days to 30 days in England, while Wales keeps the 42-day period. The rules now say that if a deadline ends on a non-working day, it rolls to the next working day instead. A working day excludes Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Day, Good Friday and bank holidays. There are other cuts too. One internal trigger point called the operative date falls from 28 days to 14, and several written-representation stages are shortened from 28 days to 14, from 21 to 14, and from 7 to 5. The form used to notify people about objections also now makes plainer that being heard in person is not automatic; it depends on whether the Secretary of State thinks the objection is serious enough to need that treatment.

The regulations also create a quicker route for simpler cases. If no compliant representations are received, or if there are no compliant objections, or only objections of a limited kind, the Secretary of State must determine the application within three months of the objection deadline or the final piece of any extra information requested after that point. A similar three-month deadline applies where all objections and representations are withdrawn before the operative date. **Why this matters:** uncontested or lightly contested applications should spend less time sitting in administrative limbo. For applicants, that means more certainty. For local communities, it means the important thing is to respond on time, because silence or withdrawal can move a case into a faster decision lane.

A second major theme is new paperwork for deemed consents. Where an applicant wants the order itself to include deemed listed building consent in England, or deemed listed building consent or conservation area consent in Wales, they now have to submit a written request, any proposed conditions, and supporting material. In England that includes a design and access statement. In Wales it includes a heritage impact statement. This is the part of the instrument that connects most clearly to the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. In plain English, the law is making it easier to package some heritage permissions into the same transport order process, but only if the applicant provides the right material up front. That may save duplication later, but it also asks promoters to do more careful preparation at the beginning.

Marine licensing is also pulled more clearly into the process. If a proposed application includes a request for a deemed marine licence, the applicant must consult the relevant body before sending in the pre-application documents. In England that means the Marine Management Organisation. In Wales it means Natural Resources Wales. A draft of the proposed marine licence must also be sent at least 28 days before the application is made. The publicity rules are widened to reflect this. Application notices can now state that deemed listed building consent, conservation area consent or a deemed marine licence is being sought. Service rules are updated too, including who must be notified where listed buildings or conservation-area works are affected. **What this means:** the process becomes more joined-up, but only if consultees and affected owners are brought in properly and early.

Some of the older listed-building procedure rules are simply being removed. The 1992 regulations lose a set of older definitions, provisions and schedules that are no longer needed once the new deemed-consent system is folded into the wider Transport and Works framework. According to the Explanatory Note on legislation.gov.uk, this is meant to help the new regime introduced by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 work properly. There is also a new rule for the awkward situation where a court quashes a decision. If that happens, the Secretary of State must send a written statement identifying the matters on which further representations are invited, and the people involved then get three weeks to respond. One more practical point sits in the small print: if an applicant is late paying inquiry or hearing costs when directed to do so, the decision deadline can be extended by the length of that delay.

Taken together, these changes are about speed, certainty and consolidation. They do not remove objections, inquiries or heritage scrutiny, but they do cut down the amount of slack in the system. If you are a local resident, campaigner or objector, the new English deadlines in particular mean less time to react. If you are promoting a scheme, you get clearer decision points, but you also face stronger expectations to submit complete material early. The final detail is telling. The Explanatory Note says no full impact assessment was prepared because the expected effects fall below the threshold that would require one. So this is not being sold as a giant rewrite of transport planning law. It is better understood as a procedural reset: shorter clocks, clearer dates and a stronger push to keep transport and works cases moving.