Planning and Infrastructure Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 32

What happened: On 13 November 2025, the House of Commons voted by 268 to 78 to disagree with Lords Amendment 32 to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. This meant the Commons rejected a change introduced by the House of Lords and reasserted the government's original position on that element of the legislation. The motion passed comfortably, with government supporters outnumbering opponents by a margin of nearly four to one.

Why it matters: The Planning and Infrastructure Bill is the government's flagship legislation for speeding up the delivery of new homes and major infrastructure projects. The government has set a target of building 1.5 million homes in England and fast-tracking 150 planning decisions on major economic infrastructure projects before the end of this Parliament. Lords Amendment 32 was one of several changes introduced in the upper chamber that the government argued would complicate or obstruct that delivery. By voting to disagree, the Commons kept the Bill closer to the government's preferred form, clearing a path toward Royal Assent. The division was one of a cluster of similar votes held on the same day, all concerning Lords amendments to the same Bill.

The politics: The vote divided largely along party lines. All 255 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted supported the government's position. The Conservatives provided virtually all of the opposition, with 73 of their MPs voting against, joined by 6 Reform UK members and 1 independent. The Greens backed the government, voting aye. The Liberal Democrats did not appear among the no votes, though their spokesperson raised concerns in debate about democratic accountability and environmental protections in other amendments. The division sits within a broader political contest over planning reform, with the Conservatives accusing the government of causing a decline in housing starts, and the government pointing to planning laws as the structural barrier it is trying to remove.