Infrastructure Act 2015

Infrastructure Act 2015
Dates
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long title	_{An Act to make provision for strategic highways companies and the funding of transport services by land; to make provision for the control of invasive non-native species; to make provision about nationally significant infrastructure projects; to make provision about town and country planning; to make provision about the Homes and Communities Agency and Mayoral development corporations; to make provision about the Greater London Authority so far as it exercises functions for the purposes of housing and regeneration; to make provision about Her Majesty’s Land Registry and local land charges; to make provision to enable building regulations to provide for off-site carbon abatement measures; to make provision for giving members of communities the right to buy stakes in local renewable electricity generation facilities; to make provision about maximising economic recovery of petroleum in the United Kingdom; to provide for a levy to be charged on holders of certain energy licences; to enable Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs to exercise functions in connection with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative; to make provision about onshore petroleum and geothermal energy; to make provision about renewable heat incentives; to make provision about the reimbursement of persons who have paid for electricity connections; to make provision to enable the Public Works Loan Commissioners to be abolished; and for connected purposes.}
Citation	7
Royal Assent	12 February, 2015
Status: Current legislation
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Text of the Infrastructure Act 2015 as in force today (including any amendments) within the United Kingdom, from the UK Statute Law Database
Revised text of statute as amended

The Infrastructure Act 2015 is a wide-ranging piece of planning and infrastructure legislation passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom during David Cameron's administration.^[1]^[2] The act targets "transport, energy provision, housing development and nationally significant infrastructure projects",^[1] and has been the subject of some degree of controversy.^[3]

Environmental Issues

The Infrastructure Act 2015 seeks to include safeguards around hydraulic fracturing.^[4] Opponents to hydraulic fracturing claim that the definition of hydraulic fracturing used by the bill is too exclusive based on existing hydraulic fracturing operations. Specifically, it is claimed that the requirement for ten thousand cubic metres of fluid total or one thousand cubic metres of fluid per stage or expected stage is too high, and that it is a greater amount of fluid than the amount used at the Preese Hall shale well.^[3]

Preese Hall is a particularly sensitive point of comparison for political opponents of hydraulic fracturing, as the minor earthquakes around the Preese Hall shale well were widely reported.^[5] Other areas of the Infrastructure Act 2015 closely related to environmental issues include sections on Renewable Heat Incentives, off-site carbon abatement measures and cycling and walking investment strategies, making environmental issues a significant focus of the Act.^[6]^[7]^[8]

Development

The Infrastructure Act 2015 is especially relevant to development and planning law around development.^[2]^[9]^[10] An explicit aim of the legislation was to increase housing development within Britain, which became an increasingly important political issue in the beginning of the twenty-first century.^[1]^[11] In addition to housing, key UK development and planning issues were addressed within the Act by efforts "to make provision about nationally significant infrastructure projects...to make provision about town and country planning...to make provision about the Homes and Communities Agency and Mayoral development corporations...to make provision for giving members of communities the right to buy stakes in local renewable electricity generation facilities".^[9]

References

United Kingdom legislation

Pre-Parliamentary legislation	List of English statutes Charter of Liberties Magna Carta

Acts of Parliament by states preceding the Kingdom of Great Britain	Acts of the Parliament of England to 1483 1485–1601 1603–1641 Interregnum (1642–1660) 1660–1699 1700–1706 Acts of the Parliament of Scotland Acts of the Parliament of Ireland to 1700 1701–1800

Acts of Parliament of the Kingdom of Great Britain	1707–1719 1720–1739 1740–1759 1760–1779 1780–1800

Acts of Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland	1801–1819 1820–1839 1840–1859 1860–1879 1880–1899 1900–1919 1920–1939 1940–1959 1960–1979 1980–1999 2000 to date Halsbury's Statutes UK Statute Law Database

Church of England measures	List Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act 1919

Legislation of devolved institutions	Acts of the Scottish Parliament Acts and Measures of the National Assembly for Wales Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland Orders in Council for Northern Ireland

Orders-in-Council	Orders-in-Council

Secondary legislation	United Kingdom Statutory Instruments Scottish Statutory Instruments Act of Sederunt, Act of Adjournal