Planning and Infrastructure Bill: Government amendment (a) to Lords Amendment 2

Parliament voted 264 to 125 to approve the government's amendment (amendment (a)) to Lords Amendment 2 on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. The government amendment accepted the broad intent of the Lords change but removed two specific subsections, numbered (7) and (8), which would have required listed building, conservation area and archaeological site consents to be obtained separately from the main development consent order for dam and reservoir projects. The vote passed comfortably, with Labour MPs providing the overwhelming majority of support.

The practical effect is that heritage and archaeological consents for nationally significant dam and reservoir infrastructure will continue to be handled within the single development consent order process rather than as separate parallel applications. The government argued this keeps the streamlined approach to major infrastructure delivery intact, which is central to its stated goal of fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects by the end of this Parliament. More broadly, this vote was one of several on the same day in which the government pushed back against Lords amendments that it believed would slow or complicate its planning reform agenda, while the wider Bill is intended to contribute to delivering 1.5 million new homes in England.

The vote divided almost entirely along government and opposition lines. All 249 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted did so in favour, with zero voting against. Conservatives (76 no votes), Liberal Democrats (43 no votes) and Reform UK (5 no votes) all voted against. Four Green MPs voted with the government, as did one Democratic Unionist Party MP and seven independents. The Liberal Democrats used the debate to press for stronger statutory environmental protections, particularly around chalk streams and the mitigation hierarchy within environmental delivery plans, while the Conservatives focused criticism on what they described as a collapse in housing starts under the current government. This vote was part of a broader ping-pong (the process by which the Commons and Lords exchange amendments) session on 13 November 2025, in which the government also successfully overturned several other Lords amendments on the same day.