The Infrastructure Planning (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 were made on 13 May 2026, laid before Parliament on 15 May, and come into force on 8 June. According to the statutory instrument published on legislation.gov.uk, the amendment updates the Infrastructure Planning (Fees) Regulations 2010, which sit within the Planning Act 2008 regime for certain nationally significant infrastructure projects. The drafting is brief, but the policy effect is practical. The measure is designed to bring host local authorities within the list of public bodies that can charge fees for relevant services linked to the infrastructure planning process.
The legal mechanics are narrow. Regulation 3 inserts definitions of 'the land' and 'local authority' into the 2010 Regulations, using the existing meanings in section 102(9) and section 102(8) of the Planning Act 2008. Regulation 4 then amends Schedule 2 by adding 'A local authority in whose area the land is situated' to the list of prescribed public authorities. In plain terms, the council covering the site of a proposed project is now expressly recognised for fee-charging purposes. Before this amendment, host local authorities were not named in Schedule 2. From 8 June, they will be.
The power behind the change comes from section 54A of the Planning Act 2008. As the instrument records, that section was inserted by section 126(1) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, giving ministers a route to prescribe authorities and fees within the development consent framework. This means the 2026 Regulations do not create a new planning route or a separate charging code. They extend an existing framework. Schedule 2 of the 2010 Regulations was itself inserted by the 2024 amending instrument, and the present Regulations simply add host local authorities to that schedule.
For applicants and project promoters, the practical consequence is straightforward. Where a host local authority provides services that fall within the fee regime, that authority will now have an express legal basis to charge. Budgeting for nationally significant infrastructure projects may therefore need to account for a clearer route to local authority cost recovery. The instrument does not itself set out new fee levels. It also does not widen the categories of project requiring development consent. What changes is the identity of the body that may charge under the existing rules, not the wider structure of the Planning Act 2008 system.
For councils, the amendment is likely to matter because host authorities often commit substantial officer time when major schemes pass through their area. Planning, legal, transport, environmental health and other teams may all be drawn into work around a large infrastructure proposal. The explanatory note states that host local authorities are now being added to the list of prescribed public authorities able to charge fees in relation to the provision of relevant services. That gives councils a clearer statutory footing for recovering eligible costs rather than absorbing them without a defined charging route. In administrative terms, the change is modest. In operational terms, it could be significant for authorities handling complex or high-volume infrastructure work.
The territorial extent is also carefully defined. The Regulations extend to England and Wales and, subject to a limitation, to Scotland. The Scottish extension applies only so far as required for the construction, other than by a gas transporter, of an oil or gas cross-country pipeline with one end in England or Wales and the other in Scotland. That makes this primarily an England and Wales measure, with only a narrow cross-border application. For practitioners, that matters because it confirms the amendment is tied closely to the territorial reach of the Planning Act 2008 regime rather than operating as a general local government charging power.
The government has not produced a full impact assessment for the instrument. The explanatory note says this is because no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. That suggests the department regards the amendment as technical and contained, rather than as a broader policy reset. Even so, the effect from 8 June 2026 is clear. Host local authorities are now expressly placed within the fee-charging architecture for relevant services under the infrastructure planning regime. Applicants will need to reflect that in project cost planning and engagement strategy, while councils may wish to review internal charging arrangements ahead of commencement.