The Transport and Works (Applications, Objections, Listed Buildings, Inquiries and Decisions Procedure) (England and Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, S.I. 2026/1143, were made on 27 October 2026, laid before Parliament on 30 October 2026 and come into force on 20 November 2026. The instrument is made by the Secretary of State and the Lord Chancellor, with the agreement of the Welsh Ministers where the provisions apply to Wales. According to the statutory text and Explanatory Note, the package does three main things. It places firmer deadlines around inquiries and decisions, shortens several procedural windows, and rewrites the route for securing deemed listed building, conservation area and marine consents within Transport and Works Act applications.
It is not a blanket reset for every live case. Regulation 1 provides that the full package applies to relevant applications made on or after 20 November 2026. For applications made before that date, the position depends on process stage: if no relevant notice under the 2004 inquiry rules has yet been issued, only the inquiry-related amendments in regulation 3 apply; if that notice has already been issued, the new rules do not apply. The territorial reach is also mixed. The Regulations extend to England and Wales, but some amendments are expressly limited while others continue to operate across both jurisdictions. For promoters and advisers, that means the file date and the location of the scheme will now decide which procedural code applies.
The most significant change in the inquiry code is the move to a managed closing date. Under amended rule 9 of the Transport and Works (Inquiries Procedure) Rules 2004, the inspector must now propose or set a date by which the inquiry must close, and that date must be no later than three months after the inquiry begins. If a pre-inquiry meeting is held, the inspector must still set a closure date within that same outer limit, although the date may later be varied or suspended with the Secretary of State's consent. Other inquiry steps are also tightened. Rule 7 reduces the time allowed under paragraph (6) from 12 to 10, and rule 13 requires the inquiry notice to state not just the date, time and place, but also the date by which the inquiry must close. The combined effect is a more structured hearing timetable, with less room for open-ended drift once an inquiry has started.
Post-inquiry decision-making is now placed on a statutory clock as well. Amended rule 20 fixes a three-month deadline running from the date the inquiry is completed for the report stage, and it requires the Secretary of State to determine the application within three months of the later of receiving that report or receiving any final additional information requested after the report. Applicants and objectors must be told the date set for determination. The same three-month model is carried across the main non-inquiry routes in the 2006 application rules. New rules 22A and 22B set deadlines where there are no substantive objections, only objections of a section 10(3) type, or where all objections and other representations are withdrawn before the operative date. Amended rule 24 applies a three-month deadline to cases handled by written representations, and new rule 25A does the same for hearings before an appointed person. Where a decision is quashed by a court, new rule 25B creates a specific written representations process so the application can be reconsidered on defined points rather than restarted in an unstructured way. Amended rules 23 and 26 also require the Secretary of State to notify parties where more time is allowed, including where late payment of inquiry or hearing costs pushes back the determination date.
The instrument also compresses several front-end deadlines, particularly for England. In the 2006 Rules, the expiry date for objections becomes 30 days in relation to England, while Wales remains at 42 days. If the last day falls on a non-working day, the deadline moves to the next working day. The definition of operative date is reduced from 28 days to 14, and a new definition of working day is inserted to remove doubt about weekends and bank holidays. The written representations timetable is shortened in parallel. The periods in rule 24 move from 28 days to 14, from 7 days to 5, and from 21 days to 14, with the same next-working-day adjustment for the new 5-day steps. For promoters, objectors, local planning authorities and statutory consultees, the practical result is a faster document cycle and less time to repair incomplete submissions once the formal process has begun.
A second strand is consent integration. The Explanatory Note states that the Regulations are intended to facilitate the deemed listed building regime introduced by section 43 of the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025, alongside deemed marine licensing under section 44. That first appears in the repeal work: the 1992 listed buildings and conservation areas procedure regulations lose definitions, inquiry references, substantive provisions and schedules that are no longer needed once the newer deemed consent route is built into the Transport and Works Act framework. The application rules are then rewritten to make that route operational. Where an applicant seeks a direction for deemed listed building consent under section 17, or Welsh consent directions under section 17A, the application must now include a written request, proposed conditions and supporting material, including a design and access statement in England or a heritage impact statement in Wales. Where an applicant seeks a deemed marine licence under section 19A, the application must carry a written request, proposed conditions and the further documents needed to support the licence case.
Marine licensing is also brought further forward into pre-application work. New rule 4A requires applicants proposing a deemed marine licence to consult the Marine Management Organisation for England or Natural Resources Wales for Wales before submitting pre-application documents, and amended rule 5 requires a draft proposed marine licence to be sent at least 28 days before the application is made. Publicity wording is updated so notices can state that deemed planning permission, deemed listed building or conservation area consent, or a deemed marine licence is being sought. The service and notice schedules are adjusted to match the new structure, including changes to Welsh heritage references and to the persons who must be notified where listed building or conservation area issues arise. The notice forms are also amended to reflect that an oral hearing is not automatic for every objection. No full impact assessment has been prepared because, as the Explanatory Note records, the expected effects fall below the threshold for one. Even so, the instrument is likely to matter in day-to-day project management: it trades longer procedural slack for earlier consultation, tighter evidence preparation and clearer statutory end points.