UK Construction and Law
The Chancellor extends judicial review limits from energy to all major infrastructure and tells ministers to stop consulting by habit
By Staff Writer | 8 September 2026
John Healey used his first growth speech as Chancellor to promise a parliamentary authorisation route for every major infrastructure project, a fixed window for legal challenges, a Green Book discount rate cut from 3.5 to 3 per cent and a review of rail construction costs. A joint letter to all ministers the same morning says there is no general duty to consult.
The speech was given at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry on Monday 7 September 2026, with a Treasury release at 14:31 and a Commons statement by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury at 18:34.
Judicial review, extended to every major project
The Treasury says judicial review challenges typically delay nationally important infrastructure projects by a year and a half, and cites Sizewell C, delayed by two judicial reviews that the courts dismissed. Last year the Government limited the number of attempts that can be made to bring a judicial review against a major infrastructure project and began work on a parliamentary authorisation mechanism for critical energy schemes. The letter to ministers, signed by the Chancellor, the First Secretary of State Louise Haigh and the Attorney General Ellie Reeves, says that mechanism will now be broadened from energy projects to all major infrastructure projects, so that transport, water and other major infrastructure can use the parliamentary route once legislation is passed.
I will take an axe to the thicket of consultation, litigation and administration that has a stranglehold too often on private investment.
John Healey, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Coventry, 7 September 2026
Under the release, the relevant Secretary of State would identify projects of critical national importance and Parliament would vote to approve their designation and final consent. A fixed Challenge Window is to ensure that points of legal challenge are identified and addressed before consent is granted rather than after it.
No general duty to consult
The letter goes further than the speech on consultation. It reasserts that there is no general duty of consultation. Formal consultation is to take place only where there is a statutory requirement, where it would be conspicuously unfair not to consult, or where ministers believe there is a good case for external input and that a formal consultation is the right vehicle. Even where a department has previously promised to consult, each instance is to be considered afresh, and within this Parliament the Government intends to repeal consultation and reporting requirements on the statute book, with retention the exception.
The Treasury's example of the problem is East West Rail, whose planning process began in 2019 and has involved four rounds of public consultation, in 2019, 2021, 2024 and 2026. Its example of the prize is Sizewell C: clean power for the equivalent of six million homes and 10,000 jobs at peak construction.
On legal risk, the letter says the guidance used by government lawyers will be updated this week to make clear that it is wholly proper for ministers to take decisions where there is a tenable legal argument even where the legal risk is high.
Green Book, rail costs and regulators
The Chancellor confirmed a cut in the Green Book discount rate from 3.5 to 3 per cent, which he said will tilt appraisal towards projects with more long-term potential, and the introduction of economic potential analysis so that places are assessed on what they could become. He committed to delivering the findings of the Fingleton Review and extending them to other sectors, starting with a review of the costs of rail infrastructure in the coming weeks. Later this autumn he and the Business Secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will convene the major regulators ahead of the Spending Review. The wider target is a 25 per cent cut in the administrative burden of regulation by the end of the Parliament, 5.6 billion pounds a year.
The Government will tackle the thicket of consultation, litigation and administration that is holding up private investment, including by extending our reforms of judicial review from energy to all major infrastructure.
Emma Reynolds, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, House of Commons, 7 September 2026
The rest of the package is regional: a 150 million pound British Business Bank scale-up fund for the North, a Northern 500 group of mid-sized firms, National Wealth Fund strategic partnerships for South Yorkshire, the Liverpool City Region, North East England and the Cardiff Capital Region, and a roadmap to fiscal devolution at the Budget next month, with a share of local income tax for every mayoral strategic authority from 2028.
None of the judicial review changes is law yet. The letter says the parliamentary route follows "the necessary legislation" and the release says the Government "intends to legislate" on consultation requirements. What changes today is the instruction to ministers: decide, act, and consult only where there is a reason to.