Grid unlocked: the reforms reshaping electricity infrastructure
On 21 April 2026, the Government published its response to the Electricity Network Infrastructure: Consents, Land Access and Rights consultation, confirming an ambitious package of reforms designed to support the rapid expansion of the electricity grid needed to meet the Government’s Clean Power 2030 and Net Zero 2050 targets. These are important changes, although they do not go as far as industry had been recommending.
The reforms will affect a broad range of stakeholders – from network operators and developers to landowners and local authorities and will have implications for both the planning and consenting landscape and the management and resolution of land access and compensation disputes. We summarise the key changes and outline what they mean in practice below.
The Reforms
Access rights
The reforms will significantly expand statutory access to land for network operators to access existing infrastructure. These access rights will be subject to further clarification but the proposal is that they will apply to all land regardless of the number of land parcels or the proximity of the land to the electricity apparatus. Certain voltage upgrades will be allowed to take place under statutory access rights, which will take precedence over any incompatible land agreements that are already in place.
Access to third-party land for installing new infrastructure will be permitted subject to a threemonth notice.
Importantly, statutory rights will be extended to transmission owners, subject to a 30-working day notice period for lines over 132 kV.
The Government’s position is that statutory access rights should be used as a last resort, and the extended access rights will be accompanied by a list of protections for landowners.
Protections will include statutory compensation covering loss or damage such as landowner time, losses relating to the movement of stock and loss of agricultural subsidies; a limitation of access rights to cases where the impact on the land is temporary; minimum notice periods; and a requirement to consider Alternative Dispute Resolution before any dispute on compensation can be referred to the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber) or the equivalent court in Scotland.
Necessary Wayleaves (NW)
The determination process for NWs will be significantly streamlined. To assist with this the reforms include setting timescales for determining NWs; allowing applications to be heard by officials instead of an external inspector; removing the requirement for all party consent for the written representations process; allowing virtual hearings to take place at the inspector’s discretion; and granting the Secretary of State the power to close any applications that are not being actively progressed. There will also be a requirement to consider a reference to alternative dispute resolution prior to any compensation claim being made following the grant of a NW and this will be considered when awarding costs.
All notices and applications will have to be submitted on prescribed forms, and an important change will require landowners to include the reason for any notice to remove, thus preventing any invalid or precautionary applications at an early stage.
Network operators will also be able to initiate the NW process for existing lines in some circumstances without first receiving a notice to remove from the landowner.
England and Wales will also be brought in line with practice in Scotland as the standard NW term will increase from 15 to 40 years providing greater certainty to network operators.
Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) threshold changes
The NSIP regime under the Planning Act 2008 was designed for the largest and most complex infrastructure projects. The Government is making three changes to the current NSIP regime to increase thresholds and avoid capturing projects that would not be regarded as nationally significant:
- Distance threshold raised to 15 km (from 2 km). The Government will significantly increase the distance threshold at which overhead line projects are classified as NSIPs from 2 km to 15 km. Projects below this length will instead be consented under the faster and less costly section 37 process.
- 132 kV poles removed from NSIP. Single-circuit 132 kV overhead lines on wooden poles, and design successors such as polymer and low-profile steel poles, will be removed from the NSIP regime and consented under section 37 instead.
- Voltage uprating in SSSIs and European Sites moved to section 37. Projects increasing the voltage of existing lines in these protected areas will no longer automatically require a Development Consent Order. Environmental protections (EIAs and HRAs) will remain fully in place.
The NSIP process can take 18 months to 2 years, with significant cost and procedural requirements, and whilst the pre-application procedure is subject to ongoing reform it can still be viewed as burdensome. These changes are intended to focus the NSIP regime on larger nationally significant projects and optimise planning resources for shorter overhead line projects and 132 kV pole lines.
Section 37
With more significant 132kv schemes being moved to the section 37 process, there are also important changes to that consenting regime to provide greater certainty on consenting. This is the main consenting route for overhead electricity line works that do not fall within the NSIP regime.
The Government will also publish fixed timeframes for determining section 37 applications in England and Wales, addressing a longstanding gap under which no set timescales currently exist. This is intended to support more effective resource allocation and provide greater certainty for network operators and landowners. In addition, the automatic requirement for the Secretary of State to hold a public inquiry where a relevant planning authority objects to a section 37 application will be removed. Instead, the Secretary of State will have discretion to determine whether a public inquiry, hearing, or other appropriate process is warranted in the circumstances of each case. This reform is particularly significant in light of the NSIP threshold changes, as projects previously consented under the Planning Act 2008 will now fall to section 37, and the removal of the automatic inquiry trigger mitigates the risk of associated delays for those projects.
A range of low-impact overhead line works will now be exempted from requiring formal section 37 consent. These include upgrades from single-phase to three-phase lines, voltage increases up to 11 kV for all existing overhead lines, lines serving up to four customers at up to 33 kV, increased pole heights (up to 20% increase), extended diversion distances, and minor works in National Parks and National Landscapes. These changes resolve a number of anomalies across the consenting of the electricity distribution networks.
Permitted Development reforms
The permitted development threshold for electricity substations in England will rise from 29 to 45 cubic metres. This means more substations can be built without a full planning application, subject to safeguards including a 3-metre height cap and a 5-metre buffer from dwellings. In protected areas, prior approval on siting and appearance will be required. The extended right will not apply in SSSIs or European Sites, where a full planning application will remain necessary.
This change is expected to reduce delays and costs associated with planning applications for substations and support the infrastructure of electrical vehicle charging rollout, where most supporting substations exceed 29 cubic metres. This is most likely to be relevant for the distribution network.
Private streets
Network operators will have the right to break open private streets across England, Wales and Scotland to install or maintain underground electricity cables without consent from private street authorities. However, the Government expects operators to use these rights as a last resort and seek voluntary agreement in the first instance. These rights of network operators will not extend to private land beyond the boundary of the street.
Safeguards for landowners will include network operators’ obligations to reinstate the private street to its previous condition, statutory notice periods, and a formal mechanism for resolving compensation disputes through the Upper Tribunal (Lands Chamber).
Tree lopping and felling
The responsibility for carrying out tree lopping and vegetation management works will shift from landowners to network operators, who will be able to rely on statutory access rights to enter private land for this purpose subject to a 21-day notice period, save for emergency cases where access to private land can be sought immediately and notice given as soon as possible afterwards.
The ability of landowners to serve counter-notices will be removed, with the aim of significantly streamlining the process and making it more efficient. The scope of these access rights will be limited to what is ‘necessary for safety purposes’, although the Government has not clarified the practical meaning of this so some further guidance will be required.
Conclusion
Further legislative change and guidance will be required. The devil will be in the detail of the legislation to enable a smooth transition to these new regimes and whilst they do not include all of the changes suggested by industry they should be welcomed as an overall package.
We will be particularly interested to see what will be said about the need to refer disputes to alternative dispute resolution, which could be of great assistance to time pressured work schemes and help to smooth over what should be long-term working relationships. We would suggest that to be most effective this referral should be mandatory and at an earlier stage than compensation determination.
This article was co-written by Stephanie Savvidou and Simran Relwani of CMS.
