At a Glance
🏗️ The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 begins to reshape consents for major schemes, with secondary legislation due this year to speed up renewables and strategic infrastructure.
🏗️ Housing policy is pivoting to scale, with a revised NPPF consultation, a new National Housing Bank and a £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme targeting delivery over the next decade.
🌱 Nuclear, offshore wind, hydrogen and grid upgrades are consolidating a long-term energy transition pipeline, even as near-term project news remains thin.
💰 Construction downturn pressures are easing but not over, with PMI still below 50, modest cost inflation, and labour costs rising on the back of wage and NI changes.
🚆 Major projects from HS2 to the Lower Thames Crossing and Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme are moving through key 2026 delivery milestones without fresh starts announced this weekend.
Today’s update: the latest data show a relatively quiet 48 hours on new project starts, but a busy backdrop of planning reform, housing finance interventions and maturing mega-projects across transport, water and energy. Regulatory shifts and medium-term programmes are setting the tone for 2026 workloads just as costs stabilise and labour pressures sharpen. Here’s what you need to know to stay ahead today.
Ongoing Stories
Following earlier coverage of planning reform, the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 now moves into its implementation phase, with secondary legislation in 2026 expected to materially shorten consent times for renewables and major infrastructure schemes.
Returning to the theme of central intervention in planning, the substantially revised NPPF and new design guidance out to consultation until 10 March are the next concrete steps in government’s 1.5m homes ambition.
Top 5 Headlines
🏗️ Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 shifts into delivery mode
With Royal Assent secured in December, the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 is now moving towards implementation, with secondary legislation and detailed reforms expected across 2026 to streamline consents for renewables and strategic infrastructure. The Act is intended to reduce delays for nationally significant schemes, building on wider government efforts to fast-track energy, water and transport projects. For developers and contractors, this sets the framework for faster but more centralised decision-making on major programmes. (Source: Sharpe Pritchard)
🏗️ NPPF rewrite and design codes aim to unlock 1.5m homes
Government’s consultation on a substantially revised National Planning Policy Framework closes on 10 March 2026, with proposals geared towards delivering 1.5m “quality” homes. Parallel consultations on new national design guidance and future model design codes seek to give clearer benchmarks for place-making and design quality. The package could reshape how schemes are assessed and negotiated, with clearer expectations but potentially tighter scrutiny on design standards. (Source: Osborne Clarke)
🏗️ National Housing Bank and £39bn programme target long-term supply
A new National Housing Bank has been launched to provide affordable finance with a focus on SME housebuilders, alongside a £39bn Social and Affordable Homes Programme running from 2026 to 2036 that is now live for bids. The initiatives sit alongside proposed temporary viability relief in London and wider planning reforms aimed at boosting delivery. Together they point to a decade-long funding and policy platform that could rebalance the market towards smaller builders and affordable housing delivery. (Source: Osborne Clarke)
🚆 HS2 and Lower Thames Crossing enter critical build phases
On HS2’s opening London–Birmingham section, tunnelling is now complete with around 2,000 pre-cast concrete platform slabs being installed, backed by £25.3bn of government funding for the 2026–30 phase including a 50-mile test track. The £9.2–10.2bn Lower Thames Crossing is scheduled to start construction in November 2026, delivering the UK’s longest road tunnels under the Thames. These milestones lock in large multi-year civils, systems and fit-out workloads, but also sharpen focus on delivery risk, supply chain capacity and interfaces with local networks. (Source: Sharpe Pritchard)
🌱 Nuclear, hydrogen and grid upgrades underpin energy transition
Main construction at Sizewell C is progressing with reactor domes installed and the structure now weathertight for internal fit-out, while Hinkley Point C enters an accelerated build phase with major components already in place. Hydrogen schemes are moving forward, with the HAR1 phase starting onsite construction and HAR3 planned for a 2026 launch, supported by £28bn of grid upgrades designed to ease bottlenecks and integrate new renewables. This maturing low-carbon pipeline signals sustained engineering demand, but also increasing focus on regulatory interfaces as Ofgem takes on heat network oversight from January 2026. (Source: Slaughter and May)
Also in the News
🏗️ A £48m funding package will support the recruitment of 350 public sector planners to speed up decisions, directly targeting one of the main bottlenecks identified in recent planning reform debates. (Source: Osborne Clarke)
🏗️ The Building Safety Levy is confirmed to take effect from 1 October 2026 for residential schemes of 10+ units, adding a new cost line that developers will need to price into medium-term pipelines. (Source: Osborne Clarke)
🚆 The £997m Haweswater Aqueduct Resilience Programme, backed by government and now underway in the North West, will upgrade critical water infrastructure serving 2.5m people. (Source: Sharpe Pritchard)
🏗️ UK construction’s downturn has eased, with PMI at 46.4 – still below growth territory but the highest since June 2025 – as expectations firm around lower borrowing costs and public infrastructure spend. (Source: Investing.com)
💰 Forecasters expect construction cost inflation of around 3.6% in 2026, moderated by high interest rates and uncertainty but offset by rising employment costs from April’s minimum wage and National Insurance increases. (Source: Investing.com)
The Daily Build is written for people shaping the UK’s construction and infrastructure pipeline, from investors to project directors. If this briefing helps your planning for 2026, consider forwarding it to a colleague who is weighing bids, budgets or delivery risks this week.