At a glance
🏗️ Major mixed-use schemes at Mark Lane Estate and Cresant House in the City of London are recommended for approval, signalling continued investor appetite in central locations.
🏗️ Planning permissions for new homes have dropped to their lowest level since 2013, even as housing starts and completions tick up at the end of 2025.
🏛️ Government is enforcing statutory planning decision times and tightening building safety rules, including two-staircase requirements for taller residential blocks from late 2026.
🚆 Government has set out a new infrastructure strategy with £4.5bn for active travel and national recognition for digital delivery on the Bridgwater Tidal Barrier.
💰 Market data points to a recovering construction sector in early 2026, led by utilities, civils and non-residential work, despite weak housing permissions.
Today’s update: planning pressure points are sharpening as ministers push faster decisions while permissions for new homes slide to decade-low levels. At the same time, infrastructure policy is pivoting towards active travel and digital delivery, and building safety regulation is tightening the design envelope for taller housing. Here’s what you need to know to stay ahead today.
Ongoing Stories
Returning to the theme of planning and infrastructure reform covered in recent days, government is now actively enforcing statutory decision times for major and non-major applications, adding clear time constraints on authorities already adapting to wider Planning and Infrastructure Bill changes.
Following earlier coverage of building safety and the Building Safety Regulator’s evolving role, new detail confirms that from 30 September 2026 new residential buildings of 18m+ will require two staircases, with the BSR reporting materially faster approvals since 2025 as dutyholder and licensing regimes bed in.
Top 5 headlines
🏛️ Planning Guarantee enforcement puts authorities on the clock
Government has confirmed enforcement of the statutory “planning guarantee”, requiring decisions on major applications within 26 weeks and non-major schemes within 16 weeks, with the full appeal process capped at under a year. The move is intended to clamp down on extended determination periods and provide more certainty to applicants. For developers and consultants, this raises the stakes on submission quality and pre-app engagement while giving more predictable programme assumptions. (Source: GOV.UK)
🏗️ Housing permissions hit lowest level since 2013 despite year-end bounce in delivery
Planning permissions were granted for just 209,781 new homes in the year to September 2025, the weakest annual total since 2013. Yet Q4 2025 saw 36,720 completions, up 8.9% on Q3, and 37,300 starts, a 23% quarter-on-quarter uplift. The disconnect between falling permissions and improving delivery suggests a short-term build-out push but rising medium-term supply risk, especially against Affordable Homes Programme ambitions for 180,000 homes by 2026 concentrated in London, the South East and Yorkshire & Humber. (Source: Tokio Marine HCC)
🏗️ Mark Lane Estate and Cresant House schemes advance in the Square Mile
City of London officers have recommended approval for amendments to the long-dormant Mark Lane Estate consent, updating a 2003 permission to deliver office, retail, a public house, heritage/cultural space and tourist facilities. Separately, the Cresant House proposal at Golden Lane Estate — a four-storey building with commercial units, a public house and 159 apartments alongside fire safety works and external repairs — has also been recommended for approval. Together the schemes underline continued central London appetite for mixed-use intensification and the integration of safety upgrades within estate renewal. (Source: Bucks Planning Archive)
🚆 £4.5bn active travel package anchors new infrastructure strategy
Government has announced a £4.5bn investment in walking, cycling and wheeling infrastructure over five years, targeting 5,000 new routes and 10,000 safer crossings. The programme is framed as a core plank of national infrastructure strategy, with significant local authority delivery involvement anticipated. This creates a substantial pipeline for civils, public realm and streetscape contractors, and positions active travel as a mainstream infrastructure asset class alongside roads and rail. (Source: GOV.UK)
🚆 Bridgwater Tidal Barrier wins Digital Excellence award
The Bridgwater Tidal Barrier scheme has received a Digital Excellence award recognising innovative design work by AtkinsRéalis. The project is being highlighted by government as a benchmark for digital tools in complex flood defence schemes. For infrastructure clients, it reinforces the direction of travel towards model-based design, data-rich delivery and closer scrutiny of digital maturity in major project appointments. (Source: GOV.UK)
Also in the news
🏛️ Building regulations will require two staircases in new residential buildings 18m and above from 30 September 2026, tightening life-safety design parameters for taller schemes now in planning. (Source: GOV.UK)
🏛️ The Building Safety Regulator reports 28% faster planning approvals and a 15-week reduction in approval times since 2025 as the dutyholder regime and principal contractor licensing take effect, signalling a maturing regulatory environment for higher-risk projects. (Source: GOV.UK)
🏛️ JCT 2016 contracts are scheduled to be withdrawn from sale by 31 March 2026, prompting project teams to plan transitions to newer standard forms on long-running programmes. (Source: GOV.UK)
⚙️ Industry surveys show early 2026 construction growth driven by utilities, civil engineering and non-residential starts, with Q1 output up around 6% and offsetting weaker housebuilding. (Source: Tokio Marine HCC)
💰 Market analysts note that, despite 2025’s low planning permissions, rising starts and completions in late 2025 and early 2026 point to a more positive near-term delivery trajectory into the back half of 2026. (Source: Tokio Marine HCC)
The Daily Build is written for people shaping the UK’s construction and infrastructure pipeline. If today’s briefing is useful, consider forwarding it to colleagues who are planning bids, programmes or investment decisions this week.