The Government has promised to “unleash seismic reforms” to the planning system as it publishes major new legislation.

The Planning and Infrastructure Bill begins its passage through parliament today, 11 March.

It is expected to include wide-ranging reforms, including streamlining the planning process, changing the way developers meet environmental obligations and giving communities near new electricity pylons money off their energy bills.

Along with recent changes to national planning policy, Labour hopes the legislation will help deliver on its promise to build 1.5 million homes and make decisions on 150 major infrastructure projects by the next election.

Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner said the government would create “the biggest building boom in a generation” by “lifting the bureaucratic burden which has been holding back developments for too long”.

She added: “The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will unleash seismic reforms to help builders get shovels in the ground quicker to build more homes, and the vital infrastructure we need to improve transport links and make Britain a clean energy superpower to protect billpayers.”

The bill comes alongside wider planning reforms including the new National Planning Policy Framework

The bill is expected to include changes to how planning decisions are made, with more applications decided by planning officers rather than elected councillors, and council planning committees slimmed down to “ensure good debate is encouraged”.

Councils will also be allowed to set their own planning fees to recover their costs, while “meritless” legal challenges to major applications will face a crackdown.

Other changes include a new nature restoration fund, allowing developers to pay into larger environmental projects instead of funding their own site-by-site initiatives.

There will also be a scheme for those living near new electricity pylons to receive up to £250 a year off their energy bills for 10 years along with community projects such as leisure facilities to encourage communities to host vital infrastructure.

But many of the details remain to be decided and will be subject to consultation, including how the bill discount scheme will work and which decisions will be made by planning officers rather than councillors.

Key measures in the bill include:

Planning committees  - housebuilding will be backed by streamlining planning decisions through the introduction of a national scheme of delegation that will set out which types of applications should be determined by officers and which should go to committee, have controls over the size of planning committees to ensure good debate is encouraged with large and unwieldy committees banned, and mandatory training for planning committee members. Councils will also be empowered to set their own planning fees to allow them to cover their costs – with the stretched system currently running at a deficit of £362m in the recent year. This money will be reinvested back into the system to speed it up.

Nature Restoration Fund – this will be established to ensure a win-win for both the economy and nature by ensuring builders can meet their environmental obligations faster and at a greater scale by pooling contributions to fund larger environmental interventions. These changes will remove time intensive and costly processes, with payments into the fund allowing building to proceed while wider action is taken to secure the environmental improvements needed.

Compulsory Purchase reform - reforms will ensure compensation paid to landowners is not excessive and the process of using directions to remove ‘hope value’ – the value attributed to the prospect of planning permission being granted for alternative development – where justified in the public interest is sped-up. Inspectors, councils or mayors where there are no objections, will take decisions instead of the Secretary of State.

Development Corporations – will be strengthened to make it easier to deliver large-scale development – like the government’s new towns – and build 1.5 million homes alongside the required infrastructure.

Strategic planning - the bill will introduce a system of ‘strategic planning’ across England known as spatial development strategies, which will help to boost growth by looking across multiple local planning authorities for the most sustainable areas to build and ensuring there is a clear join-up between development needs and infrastructure requirements. These plans will be produced by mayors, or by local authorities in some cases, and will ensure the level of building across the country meets the country’s needs.

National Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) -  the Bill will ensure a faster NSIP regime that delivers infrastructure projects faster. It will make sure consultation requirements for projects – such as windfarms, roads or railway lines – are streamlined, and ensure the national policies against which infrastructure applications are assessed are updated at least every five years so the government’s priorities are clear. Other changes will be made to the Highways Act and the Transport and Works Act to reduce bureaucracy so transport projects can progress quicker.

Clean Energy - further changes will make sure approved clean energy projects that help achieve clean power by 2030, including wind and solar power, are prioritised for grid connections. Some projects currently face waits of over 10 years. A ‘first ready, first connected’ system will replace the flawed ‘first come, first served’ approach to prioritise projects needed to deliver clean power.

Bill discounts - people living within 500m of new pylons across Great Britain will get money off their electricity bills up to £2,500 over 10 years, under these plans. Alongside money off bills, separate new guidance will set out how developers should ensure communities hosting transmission infrastructure can benefit, by funding projects like sports clubs, educational programmes, or leisure facilities.   The new community funds guidance means communities could get £200,000 worth of funding per km of overhead electricity cable in their area, and £530,000 per substation. This would mean an upcoming project like SSEN Transmission’s power line between Tealing and Aberdeenshire could see local communities benefitting from funding worth over £23m.