Impact of planning developments on local transport

Impact of planning developments on local transport

Local transport includes local roads, parking, buses, taxis and private hire vehicles, light rail and active travel (cycling, walking and wheeling).

Sections 2.3 to 2.8 of the House of Commons Library briefing ‘Who is responsible for local transport in England?’ details the responsibilities that local authorities have for different modes of transport.

Responsibility for local transport

Local transport authorities are the primary bodies responsible for local transport in England. Under the Transport Act 2000 they are defined as one of the following depending on the local government structure of the area:

• a combined authority, including Mayoral Combined Authority
• a combined county authority
• a county council in England
• a unitary authority

As set out in the 2000 Act, local transport authorities are responsible for developing policies for the promotion and encouragement of safe, integrated, efficient, and economic transport to, from and within their area and carrying out their functions to deliver on these policies.

Unitary and upper-tier (county) councils are primarily responsible for local transport. This is through their statutory duties as the local transport authority, highway authority and traffic authority for their area.

Unitary and county councils are primarily responsible for developing local transport plans and policies to meet the needs of their area; maintaining and managing local roads; provision of on-street parking; partnership working with bus companies to improve bus services; and supporting active travel.

District authorities and unitary authorities are responsible for the licensing of taxis and off-street parking in their areas.

Combined authorities (in their role as a local transport authority) are responsible for coordinating transport across their region, including for example, managing the key route network of roads, and light rail systems.

Mayoral combined authorities, through individual devolution deals, have agreed various powers in relation to local transport. Six mayoral combined authorities (Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, North East, West Midlands and West Yorkshire) have Passenger Transport Executives that operate as executive bodies of the combined authority, supporting the delivery of the combined authority’s transport objectives. This is enabled through the Local Transport Act 2008 (sections 103 to 113).

Section 2.2 of the House of Commons Library briefing ‘Who is responsible for local transport in England?’ details the funding allocations for transport received by local authorities and mayoral strategic authorities.

English devolution and changes to local transport

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which was brought before Parliament in July 2025 and is presently at the Committee stage in the House of Lords, proposes some changes to local transport responsibilities.

The proposed changes include strategic authorities becoming the sole local transport authority for their area. Strategic authorities (and county or unitary authorities where a strategic authority does not exist), would also be given powers to license micromobility providers, such as those running e-scooter schemes.

The House of Commons Library briefing ‘English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill 2024-25’ provides further detail.

Planning for infrastructure

Local planning authorities (LPAs) are required to engage with infrastructure providers, including local transport providers, when preparing their local plan. The local plan is used to guide development and associated infrastructure delivery over a 15-year period.

In order to identify what local transport infrastructure is required and where, LPAs may prepare an infrastructure delivery plan (IDP). This sets out what infrastructure is planned for and where, based on discussions with infrastructure providers about the amount and location of development proposed in the local plan. The infrastructure delivery plan sets out what projects are planned, how they are funded and who is responsible for delivery. It also identifies infrastructure requirements where funding and delivery may be realised over the longer term. An infrastructure delivery plan forms part of the evidence base for local plan infrastructure policies.

Strategic authorities, such as Combined Authorities, will be required to prepare Spatial Development Strategies. These form part of the development plan alongside a LPA's local plan. The government's consultation on SDSs (which closes on 26 March 2026) explains that: "SDSs will ensure that sub-regional areas can effectively plan to co-ordinate the provision of strategic infrastructure" so that when broad locations are identified for growth, SDSs can also identify "the necessary infrastructure needed to support that growth".

The Planning Advisory Service (part of the Local Government Association, supporting local planning authorities to deliver an effective planning service) has published information on Navigating infrastructure planning: Types, approvals and funding guide which has further information on IDPs.

National planning policies for local transport

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF, December 2024) sets out the government's planning policies for England. Policies in the NPPF are used to guide plan-making and are a material consideration in when determining planning applications. There are policies on local transport in chapter 9 of the NPPF. It says:

“Transport issues should be considered from the earliest stages of plan-making and development proposals, using a vision-led approach to identify transport solutions that deliver well-designed, sustainable and popular places” (paragraph 109).

When it comes to planning for development and local transport the NPPF says:

“Significant development should be focused on locations which are or can be made sustainable, through limiting the need to travel and offering a genuine choice of transport modes […] However, opportunities to maximise sustainable transport solutions will vary between urban and rural areas, and this should be taken into account in both plan-making and decision-making” (paragraph 110).

The NPPF highlights the importance of engagement with local transport providers to align transport and development plans. It explains that planning policies should:

“be prepared with the active involvement of local highways authorities, other transport infrastructure providers and operators and neighbouring councils, so that strategies and investments for supporting sustainable transport and development patterns are aligned” (paragraph 111b).

On 16 December the government announced a consultation from December 2025 to March 2026 on the National Planning Policy Framework: proposed reforms and other changes to the planning system. The consultation proposes significant policy changes to planning and is intended to support the governments wider reforms of the planning system, such as provisions introduced through the Planning and Infrastructure Act.

The consultation draft NPPF places a greater emphasis on embedding a "vision-led approach" to transport. Rather than looking at transport from a capacity planning perspective (known as predict and provide), a vision-led approach adopts a holistic view of how transport can support the creation of sustainable, well-designed places. The consultation draft NPPF includes a reference to DfT's Connectivity Tool as a method for assessing site connectivity and informing selection for sites to allocate for development.

The consultation draft NPPF also proposes the principle of development around "well-connected" train stations located within and outside of settlement boundaries. “Well-connected" stations are defined in footnote 26 of the consultation draft NPPF [PDF]. They are the stations which are in the top 60 travel to work areas and have a frequent service operating trains or trams.

Local transport and new developments

Section 106 agreements, also known as planning obligations, are legal agreements entered into between the local planning authority (LPA) and a developer applying for planning permission under section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Planning obligations are designed to make an otherwise unacceptable development acceptable in planning terms, such as funding required infrastructure. Planning obligations must meet three tests which are set out in legislation.

Developers may also contribute towards infrastructure through the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL), first introduced in 2010 and amended in 2019, it is a charge which can be levied by local authorities on new development in their area. CIL allows local authorities to deliver infrastructure, such as transport, which is needed to support new development.

A 2024 report from the New Economics Foundation (NEF), sponsored by Go Ahead, raised concerns that new homes were increasingly built in places where people were reliant on cars for transport, with the trend towards car dependency present in every region of England outside London. NEF reported that the public transport travel times from England’s new homes to town centres, jobs, hospitals and schools have risen steadily over the same period.

New policies have been announced to address the relationship between local transport and new developments.

In June 2025 the government’s 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy was published, detailing how improvements to spatial planning could help integrate development with infrastructure, such as transport (PDF, Page 23). In the same month, the DfT launched its Connectivity Tool to help built environment professionals understand how any location in England and Wales is connected to everyday services by transport. The tool can also plot new transport routes to understand how these would affect an area’s connectivity.

In November 2025, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (see above section), if developers meet certain rules. Platform4 a government-owned property company set up to build 40,000 homes on brownfield land near railway stations, was also launched, with four sites already earmarked, including Newcastle Forth Goods Yard and Manchester Mayfield.

In the same month, DfT published a report ‘Impacts of integrated land-use and transport planning’ which summarised evidence on how combining land-use and transport planning affected travel, the economy and the environment. The findings showed that integrated planning could reduce journey lengths and deliver economic benefits.

The Bus Services Act 2025, among other changes, intends to streamline the process for local authority bus franchising. Franchising allows local authorities more control over services, including specifying routes, these powers could be used to better integrate local transport with new development.

Further information

There are a number of Library dashboards and briefings which provide further information on local transport and new developments:

Who is responsible for local transport in England? (18 August 2025)

Buses and Taxis FAQs (15 January 2026)

How accessible are Britain’s railway stations? (3 November 2025)

Potholes and local road maintenance funding (4 April 2025)

Local area data: Electric vehicles and charging points (18 September 2024)

Planning for nationally significant infrastructure projects (8 July 2024)

English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill 2024-25 (20 August 2025)

Developer contributions (July 2024)

Infrastructure in the UK (June 2025)