The 2026 DCO reforms
On 24 July 2026 the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 changed the front end of the Development Consent Order regime. Statutory pre-application consultation has gone, the acceptance test has been rewritten, and a 10% biodiversity net gain requirement arrives on 2 November. This article sets out what was removed, what survived, what is new and what is still to come, with the section, instrument and date behind each point.
What was removed?
The front end. Statutory consultation, the SoCC, the Consultation Report and the duty to publish preliminary environmental information have gone.
What is tested now?
Acceptance. Acceptance now looks at guidance and advice, with a hard gate on the s.46 notification.
What is new?
New gates. A 10% biodiversity net gain requirement, directions out of the regime, and a costs power.
What is not yet law?
The watch list. Post-consent change and the Nature Restoration Levy are drafted but not commenced. Most compulsory purchase reform already is.
What was removed?
On 24 July 2026 the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 omitted six statutory pre-application provisions from the Planning Act 2008: ss.42, 43, 44, 45, 47 and 49. The Statement of Community Consultation and the Consultation Report went with them, together with the statutory requirement to publish preliminary environmental information before finalising the Environmental Statement. This did not abolish environmental assessment: the Environmental Statement remains, and a PEIR may still be worth producing on its merits. There is now no statutory duty to consult before submitting a DCO application. The commencement regulations did not preserve the former duties for schemes already consulting, though reg 6 of SI 2026/641 does protect an applicant who had already notified under the old s.46 from the new s.55(3)(ca) acceptance gate.
What is tested now?
Two duties survive. The s.46 notification (to the Secretary of State, each host local authority and, for schemes affecting marine areas, the MMO) is ordinarily a hard acceptance condition: without it the application cannot be accepted, subject to the reg 6 saving for applicants who had already notified under the old s.46. s.48 publicity carries on as the one statutory point of contact with the public. The s.55 acceptance test around them has been rewritten. Whether you consulted adequately is no longer part of it; what the Inspectorate now looks at is how you approached publicity against the July 2026 guidance, and what you did with its s.51 advice.
What is new?
Alongside the repeals come new requirements. A minimum 10% biodiversity net gain objective applies to relevant NSIP development in England, including the intertidal zone but generally not the marine environment beyond mean low water, for applications made on or after 2 November 2026. The distinction that matters is between applicability and assessment: the application date fixes whether the regime applies at all, while whether the objective is met is considered through examination and determined by the Secretary of State. Timing still bites on programme, because habitat evidence must be current and some ecological surveys are season-dependent, so a complete BNG evidence base cannot be assumed to be assembled at short notice. Separately, new ss.35B to 35D allow projects to be directed out of the regime on a 35-day timetable, the Examining Authority gained a costs power in February, and host authorities can now charge applicants for their work.
What is not yet law?
Parts of the Act are still waiting, and the mistake runs in both directions. The unified post-consent change process (s.12) has no commencement date, so the material and non-material distinction is still live law despite reports to the contrary, and the Nature Restoration Levy Regulations exist only in draft. Compulsory purchase is the one people get wrong the other way round: ss.105 to 111 and 114 came into force on 18 February 2026, and only temporary possession under s.112 is still waiting on regulations. As at 31 August 2026 we had identified no application accepted following the complete reformed pre-application route, so anything said about how the new regime performs, including the government's expectation of about twelve months saved, is a forecast rather than a result.
The statute no longer requires front-loading; the guidance now recommends it. The examination timetable, the decision tests and the judicial review window have not moved. The change is all at the front end, where the consultation record is no longer a compliance document but a judgement you may later have to defend. Skipping engagement does not make the objections go away; it moves them to examination, or to a challenge of the granted Order, where they are harder and more expensive to deal with.
Positions stated as at 31 August 2026, checked against primary sources: the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025; the commencement regulations that brought the 24 July package into force (SI 2026/641) and the biodiversity gain provisions of the Environment Act 2021 (SI 2026/492); the substantive infrastructure planning regulations made under those powers (SIs 2026/728, 735 and 737, which commence nothing themselves); the ten Defra biodiversity gain statements published on 2 June 2026; and the MHCLG National Infrastructure Planning Guidance suite of 3 July 2026. The twelve-month saving is the government's own expectation, reported in briefing rather than set out in a named impact assessment, and as at that date we had identified no application accepted following the complete reformed pre-application route. Commencement is still moving in tranches, so check the current position before relying on any provision.
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