Five digital shifts reshaping major consents delivery

United Kingdom | 01 June 2026
Reading Time : 5 min

Only a small proportion of major applications are decided within the 13-week statutory window, with many taking months or years longer.* This widening gap between ambition and approval risks delaying growth, productivity and the benefits these schemes aim to deliver.

The pressure is most acute for nationally significant infrastructure. With around 150 Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) expected to come forward this parliamentary term, the system is under sustained strain. A single NSIP application can involve around 220 documents, while environmental impact assessments often exceed 15,000 pages, making them difficult and time-consuming to review. Ministers have called for Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) to be shorter, more navigable and more user friendly, yet they are still typically issued as static PDFs, leaving critical information hard to search or interpret.

The move towards digital consents is not happening in isolation. Since 2021, the government has recognised that environmental assessment must evolve to keep pace with infrastructure delivery. The NSIP Review, Planning White Paper and the Office for Environmental Protection’s 2023 review all highlighted ongoing issues around data access, reporting and monitoring. In January 2024, the government reaffirmed its commitment to reform, including open data standards, stronger data sharing and more digitally accessible, map-based assessment as part of the transition to Environmental Outcomes Reports.

Digital brings clarity to complexity across the Development Consent Order (DCO) journey by connecting information and automating routine processes. Applied across planning, land, environment and consent, it reduces risk and accelerates delivery.

The five shifts below show how ambition becomes deliverable, evidence-driven outcomes.

Shift 1: From fragmented data to a connected digital ecosystem

Projects move faster, with fewer surprises, when everyone works from the same, up to date information. In consenting, the challenge is often around fragmented data. When design, environmental, land and consultation information sit in separate systems or static documents, even small design changes can cause delay, rework and inconsistency. This remains a key pain point, as schemes continue to evolve throughout the consent process.

Interoperability is critical. A secure common data environment (CDE) connects project data through shared standards, allowing information to flow between teams and tools. When a design changes, its implications can be quickly identified and assessed, without manual updates or reliance on PDFs. Teams work from a single, current view of the scheme, reducing risk and uncertainty.

This connected approach supports real time coordination and decisions that are easier to explain and defend. By keeping the consenting process responsive to change, interoperability helps turn complexity into clarity and deliver more robust outcomes.

Richard Clayton

Strategic Growth Director for Earth & Environment

United Kingdom

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Shift 2: From late problem discovery to early scenario testing

Early constraints mapping and option evaluation reduce downstream risk, redesign and delay.

Digital is most powerful when it brings key information to the surface early, before major decisions are made. Constraint layers, sensitivities, engineering feasibility and environmental receptors can be explored interactively and combined using multi-criterion analysis to test scenarios before commitments are made. Teams can see where risk concentrates, what mitigations matter, and which route or siting options offer the strongest balance of performance and impact. Early insight removes the surprises that typically slow programmes down.

Shift 3: From static information to AI enabled insight

Artificial intelligence is beginning to change the way NSIPs are supported and progressed.

Large Language Models and Agentic AI will enable project teams to generate and analyse information faster, and to consume, contextualise and integrate historic data. They will also help interpret stakeholder feedback and make impact assessments and other key documents more accessible to technical and non-technical audiences alike.

Whilst still in its relative infancy, when applied responsibly in this sector there is no doubt that AI should be viewed as an enabler. It supports productivity by reducing the effort spent finding information and increasing the time available for judgement and decision-making, helping to deliver infrastructure consents at the pace our communities need.

Shift 4: From complex narratives to transparent, visual engagement

Interactive, visual and accessible information builds trust and improves the quality of feedback.

When communities, stakeholders and decision makers can see proposals and explore them in context, the quality of dialogue improves. Interactive maps, short videos, visualisations and clear analysis transform technical material into information people can understand and respond to meaningfully. This improves the quality of feedback, strengthens evidence and increases the defensibility of decisions.

Shift 5: From handover pain to a ready-to-mobilise delivery

The real value of digital is realised when data created for consent is designed with the end in mind. Rather than treating the DCO as a static reporting exercise, a digital first approach structures data from the outset so it can be reused, trusted and built on through delivery, operation and maintenance.

When information is structured, validated and governed throughout the consenting process, it flows seamlessly into the next stage. Design, environmental and land data are handed over as a coherent, standards aligned dataset, not a collection of documents. This enables contractors to mobilise from Day 1 with confidence, reducing duplication, avoiding delay and ensuring continuity between what was assessed, approved and built.

Crucially, this approach ensures data is fit for future use. The same digital foundation that supports consent underpins construction, asset management and long term performance monitoring. By designing data for its full lifecycle from the start, projects gain lasting value from the consent process, strengthening in life asset understanding and supporting better decisions well beyond approval.

Why this matters for your next project

Having the right ecosystem and a clear digital strategy is essential. Ensuring this strong digital foundation is in place, the specialist tools used across planning, land, environment, consenting, engagement and handover can work together. This is where measurable improvements emerge, reducing rework, generating faster approvals, clearer evidence, stronger stakeholder confidence and a more predictable route to consent.

* Infrastructure Pipeline update signals future workforce needs - GOV.UK