Weekly planning news
Planning news - 19 June 2025
Government unveils £16bn ‘National Housing Bank’
The Government has announced the launch of a new National Housing Bank, backed by £16 billion in public investment, to support the delivery of over 500,000 new homes and unlock billions more in private sector funding.
According to a press release published on 17 June1, the Bank will be established as a publicly owned subsidiary of Homes England, with a core mission to accelerate housebuilding and inject an estimated £53 billion in private investment into the housing market.
The Bank will offer a mix of equity investment, loans, and guarantees, with a particular focus on unlocking complex or high-risk sites that typically struggle to secure upfront financing.
“The Bank will help unlock a wide range of sites, including larger ones which struggle to get up front lending given their risk and complexity, using a mixture of equity investment, loans and guarantees to leverage global institutional capital into UK housing, reducing risk at the early stages of development,” the government stated.
The initiative is designed to reduce risk in the early stages of development, increase delivery capacity across the housing sector, and serve as a long-term partner to the private sector.
For more information, visit the government’s website.2
AI Extract tool announced as data reveals severe staffing shortage at LPAs
A recent UNISON data request revealed3 that just one in five planning departments in England is fully staffed - intensifying delays in delivering vital housing and infrastructure.
Chronic understaffing has become a bottleneck, with planning officers stretched thin and decisions dragging on. Though the government responded last year by pledging additional funding as part of the National Planning Policy Framework, recruitment and training processes inherently take time. In the short term, local councils still face significant backlogs and slowed delivery.
To help bridge this gap, the government’s Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (AI) recently unveiled Extract, a bespoke AI data-extraction tool designed to expedite planning workflows. Announced at London Tech Week, Extract promises to revolutionise how planning documents are analysed. Leveraging AI, the tool can morph scanned PDFs and handwritten notes into structured, geo-referenced data in under three minutes - compared to the one to two hours typical of manual processing.
Early pilots in councils including Hillingdon, Westminster, and Exeter have demonstrated strong results: Extract processes around 100 documents per day, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of staff hours previously spent on administrative tasks. By freeing planning officers from data input, Extract will enable more time for decision-making and community engagement.
The tool will be scaled to all English councils by Spring 2026 under the Plan for Change initiative, which forms part of the government’s strategy to deliver 1.5 million new homes over the coming Parliament.
Is your LPA struggling to meet planning SLAs or streamline your processes? TerraQuest provides tailored support for local authorities - whether you need short-term solutions or long-term optimisation. We’ll work to your timescales and priorities. Visit our website to learn more.4
Government launches overhaul to tackle HS2 ‘appalling mess’
The government has confirmed that HS2 will be delayed beyond its original 2033 target5, with transport secretary Heidi Alexander condemning the project as an “appalling mess.” The revised timeline follows a stark assessment from new HS2 Ltd CEO Mark Wild, who said the current cost, schedule, and scope are “unsustainable.”
Initial projections put HS2’s cost at £20bn in 2012. It’s now expected to exceed £100bn, with Wild warning that contractor arrangements made in 2020 placed ‘overwhelming financial risk on the public’. He also revealed that testing alone could take three years - more than double original estimates.
A government-commissioned review6 by James Stewart pointed to ineffective contracts, political interference, and frequent design changes as key drivers of overspend. Notably, £250m was spent on two designs for London Euston station – which were both rejected.
Alexander announced a “reset” of the project with new leadership, including Mike Brown as chair and Wild continuing as CEO. Both were instrumental in successfully delivering the Elizabeth Line.7
“We’ve done it before,” Alexander told MPs. “And we’ll do it again.”
Government set to launch ‘£725bn’ infrastructure strategy plan
The government is poised to unveil the details of its long-anticipated 10-year infrastructure strategy, with a formal announcement expected imminently.
Following last week’s Spending Review8, which confirmed £113 billion in infrastructure funding, the Chancellor is now expected to reveal further investment9 - bringing the total value of the strategy to an estimated £725 billion over the next decade.
A press release published on the government’s website stated that the full strategy would be released on 18 June. At the time of writing, the final document is yet to be published.
In a clear response to the growing impact of climate change, the strategy is expected to include a record £7.9 billion for flood defences, alongside significant investment in power infrastructure, railway lines, and housing.
Speaking ahead of the launch, the Chancellor said:
“For too long, our infrastructure - our schools and hospitals, our roads and bridges - has been left to crumble, holding back communities and stunting economic growth.”
As the original providers of land referencing services that support early-stage infrastructure planning, TerraQuest understands how the sector has evolved in recent years.
Peter King, Land Referencing Consultant at TerraQuest, commented:
“It’s really refreshing to see this long-term strategy take shape. It will provide the direction and context our sector needs to deliver confidently over the coming years.
We’re particularly interested in the government’s plans for emerging forms of infrastructure, like data centres and battery farms, and how these will be integrated into the wider strategy.”
Need expert land referencing for your project? Find out how TerraQuest can deliver accurate, efficient support tailored to your needs.10
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-500000-homes-to-be-built-through-new-national-housing-bank
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/over-500000-homes-to-be-built-through-new-national-housing-bank
- https://www.theplanner.co.uk/2025/06/16/council-staffing-levels-delaying-planning-approvals-uk-union-finds?check_logged_in=1
- https://www.terraquest.co.uk/products-services/planning-application-support
- https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/18/hs2-delayed-beyond-2033-high-speed-rail
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/major-transport-projects-governance-and-assurance-review
- https://www.transportxtra.com/publications/local-transport-today/news/59396/london-underground-s-mark-wild-to-take-charge-at-crossrail/
- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-review-2025-document/spending-review-2025
- https://www.ft.com/content/44215067-43e8-40d8-9029-1be213254dac
- https://www.terraquest.co.uk/products-services/land-referencing
