The Transport Infrastructure (Fees) Regulations 2026 create a new charging framework for public authorities involved in transport infrastructure consents. The instrument published on legislation.gov.uk was made on 26 October 2026, laid before Parliament on 30 October 2026 and comes into force on 20 November 2026. Simon Lightwood, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Transport, signed the Regulations. The legal basis is recent. The charging powers sit in section 281B of the Highways Act 1980 and section 23A of the Transport and Works Act 1992, both inserted by the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025. The Regulations extend to England and Wales, but their operative parts are split between highways matters in England and Transport and Works Act cases that may include cross-border orders.
Part 2 applies in England and deals with highways orders and schemes. It allows prescribed public authorities to charge highway authorities for relevant services connected to certain processes under the Highways Act 1980, including schemes under sections 16 and 106 and orders under Parts 2, 6 and 12. Schedule 1 sets out who may charge. The list includes the Coal Authority, the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive, the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England, local authorities in England, the Marine Management Organisation, Natural England, National Highways and Transport for London. For local government, the definition reaches county councils, district councils, London boroughs, the City of London, the Council of the Isles of Scilly, National Park authorities and the Broads Authority.
The charging power is not open-ended. A public authority may charge only in line with a statement published on its website, and that statement must describe the service, set out the fee or the calculation method, and identify the enactment under which the service is provided. For promoters and councils, the first compliance check will be whether an authority's published fee statement is sufficiently clear. The Regulations also place a cap on what can be recovered. Fees may include costs that are reasonably incidental to providing the service, but they must not exceed the costs reasonably incurred, or expected to be incurred, by the public authority. The text on legislation.gov.uk also makes clear that existing charging powers under the Environment Act 1995, the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 and the National Heritage Act 1983 remain unaffected.
Part 2 goes beyond the right to issue an invoice. A prescribed authority may publish arrangements for written estimates, advance payment, instalments, waivers and refunds. Any waiver or refund must be confirmed in writing, which gives highway authorities a documented basis for budget control and audit. Enforcement provisions are equally direct. Once fees are notified in writing, the paying authority must be given at least 21 days to pay. If payment is not made, the charging authority may recover overdue sums as a civil debt where the service has been delivered, or withhold the service where it has not started. If work has only been carried out in part, the authority may both pursue the debt and pause the remaining service.
Part 3 applies a near-identical model to Transport and Works Act applications. In this regime, the payer is the applicant under section 6 of the Transport and Works Act 1992, which covers applications for orders relating to railways, tramways and certain inland waterway projects. The same cost-recovery limit, publication duty and payment administration rules apply. Schedule 2 extends the list of charging bodies for these cases. Alongside authorities already named for highways matters, it includes local authorities in Wales, Natural Resources Wales and the Welsh Ministers where they are providing relevant services in connection with a cross-border order. That detail matters for promoters whose scheme touches both England and Wales, because the charging framework follows the scope of the order rather than simply the location of the applicant.
The transitional provisions are likely to be one of the first points checked by legal teams and project managers. Part 2 does not apply where the relevant service relates to specified Highways Act 1980 or Acquisition of Land Act 1981 procedures if the first statutory notice was published before 20 November 2026. Part 3 does not apply where a section 6 application under the 1992 Act was made to the Secretary of State before that same date. That approach avoids retrospectively changing the cost position for schemes that have already entered the statutory process. In practical terms, promoters and highway authorities will need to evidence the date of first publication, or the date the Transport and Works Act application was made, before assuming that a fee can lawfully be charged under the new Regulations.
The Explanatory Note states that no full impact assessment has been produced because the instrument concerns a tax, duty, levy or other charge and falls outside the Better Regulation Framework. It also says no significant impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. Even so, the measure will change day-to-day administration for authorities and applicants by formalising when technical input can be billed and how non-payment can affect progress. For local authorities, National Highways, Transport for London and statutory consultees, the Regulations offer a clearer route to recover the cost of casework. For scheme promoters and applicant bodies, the main operational point is earlier financial planning: checking each authority's published charging statement, building fee estimates into project budgets and testing whether a live scheme falls inside or outside the transitional carve-outs.