We want to make planning law simpler, clearer and easier to understand.
Contents
Background
Planning law in Wales is currently hard to understand and navigate.
It is mainly based on laws passed by the UK Parliament that are decades old and has been significantly changed over time. These changes have made legislation fragmented, complicated and mostly only available in English.
Planning law in Wales is different from the law in England. This can make it harder for people to know which rules apply.
We asked the Law Commission to review Welsh planning law. Their report, Planning Law in Wales, found that the law needs urgent work to make it simpler and more consistent. We published an interim response and detailed response to their report.
Purpose of the Acts
The Planning (Wales) Act 2026 consolidates planning legislation in Wales.
Consolidation:
- brings together the main planning Acts and some subordinate legislation
- creates a single bilingual Act
- modernises the structure and wording of the law to make it easier to understand and use.
Although the structure and wording of the law will change, its legal effect will remain unchanged. Consolidation is a technical process to improve clarity, not to change policy or reform planning law.
The Planning (Consequential Provisions) (Wales) Act 2026 helps implement the main Bill. It does this through:
- transitional and savings provisions
- making the necessary amendments and repeals to existing primary legislation
Current progress
The Planning (Wales) Act 2026, the Planning (Consequential Provisions) (Wales) Act 2026 and their associated documents were approved by Senedd Cymru on 10 March 2026, and received Royal Assent on 27 April 2026, thereby becoming Acts of the Senedd.
The Acts are supported by an explanatory memorandum. This includes:
- Explanatory notes: to help readers understand the Bills. They do not provide a full description of everything the Bills contains.
- Drafters’ notes: explains decisions taken in the drafting of the legislation.
- Tables of origins: explain the legislative source of provisions in the Bills.
- Tables of destinations: explain where provisions in the existing legislation now sit in the Bills.
The Acts and their supporting information are available on Legislation.gov.uk:
Information relating to the scrutiny of the Bills that became the two Acts is available on Senedd website:
The Acts must be brought into force, alongside a suite of subordinate legislation, before they become the new legislative framework for planning law in Wales. Until the relevant provisions and subordinate legislation are commenced, the existing legislative framework will continue to apply.
Next steps
The Welsh Government has published an implementation plan, which sets out the approach to implementation of the Acts, including the key steps and timeline for their commencement.
As set out in the Explanatory Memorandum to the Acts, commencement is expected to take place 18 months after Royal Assent. Therefore, it is anticipated that the new legislative framework will come into force in October 2027. The exact commencement date will be confirmed in ‘A Practitioner Guide to the Planning (Wales) Act 2026’, which is due to be published in Spring 2027.