want to live and work and by getting our housing market moving. This will boost growth across the UK helping more people afford to live near good jobs. The government’s full proposal will be set out in due course. 3.32 The government will promote the disposal of surplus public sector land by allowing departments greater flexibility to reinvest the proceeds of land sales over multiple years. This will encourage the sale of more public land for housing and allow departments and the NHS to reinvest in public services. Devolved administrations have bespoke flexibilities to move funding between financial years and the government will discuss the implications of this change with them in due course. High quality infrastructure 3.33 The government is committed to accelerating the delivery of priority major infrastructure projects across the country, as a vital means of driving the UK’s economic growth, increasing long-term energy security and delivering Net Zero. The current energy crisis has demonstrated just how vital it is to overcome the barriers to infrastructure. 3.34 The UK’s planning system is too slow and too fragmented. For example, an offshore wind 11 farm can take four years to get through the planning process and no new substantive onshore 12 wind farm has received planning consent since 2015. On some metrics, the system has also been deteriorating in recent years: the timespan for granting Development Consent Orders 13 (DCOs) increased by 65% between 2012 and 2021. 3.35 These delays to delivery undermine investor confidence and restrict the growth potential of the government’s landmark public investment in high quality infrastructure. Delays are partly a result of a complex patchwork of environmental and regulatory rules, some of which are retained EU law. The government wants to reform and streamline these arrangements to promote growth whilst ensuring environmental outcomes are protected. 3.36 The Growth Plan announces that new legislation will be brought forward in the coming months to address these barriers by reducing unnecessary burdens to speed up the delivery of much-needed infrastructure. This includes: • reducing the burden of environmental assessments • reducing bureaucracy in the consultation process • reforming habitats and species regulations • increasing flexibility to make changes to a DCO once it has been submitted. 3.37 The Growth Plan also announces further sector specific changes to accelerate delivery of infrastructure, including: • prioritising the delivery of National Policy Statements for energy, water resources and national networks, and of a cross-government action plan for reform of the Nationally Significant Infrastructure planning system • bringing onshore wind planning policy in line with other infrastructure to allow it to be deployed more easily in England 11 British Energy Security Strategy, Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, April 2022 12 Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy analysis based on the Renewable Energy Planning Database 13 Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities analysis, based on projects granted a DCO between 2012 and 2021, including both statutory and non-statutory periods The Growth Plan 2022 21