Planning committee reforms: statutory consultation on draft Regulations and guidance

Planning committees play a critical role in maintaining public trust and ensuring local democratic oversight within the English planning system. Planning committees remain central to transparent, consistent, and high-quality decision making. In the King’s Speech, the Government announced that it would modernise the way planning committees operate to best deliver for communities and support much needed development. To achieve this, the Government introduced measures through the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 (the Act) to: give a new power to the Secretary of State to set out which planning functions should be delegated to planning officers for a decision and which should instead go to a planning committee or sub-committee give a new power to the Secretary of State to control the size and composition of planning committees impose a new requirement for members of planning committees to be trained, and certified, in key elements of plan