The Government is consulting on a new permitted development right for electricity network ground investigations and surveys in England, aimed at temporary, low-impact works carried out before electricity transmission and distribution projects.
If introduced, the right could remove the need for a planning application for specified investigations, subject to detailed limits and safeguards. The consultation was published on 6 August 2026 and closes on 4 September 2026. Nothing has changed in the GPDO yet.
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What are electricity network ground investigations?
Ground investigations and surveys are carried out before major electricity network works to understand ground conditions, identify archaeological constraints and inform routeing, design, construction and environmental assessment.
The Government gives examples including archaeological trial trenching, infiltration pits, unexploded ordnance surveys, California bearing ratio tests and cone penetration tests.
The proposed right would cover qualifying works on both operational and non-operational land. It would not create a new right of entry: landowner agreement, a wayleave or an existing statutory power of entry would still be needed where relevant.
Who could use the proposed right?
The consultation proposes limiting the new PDR to electricity transmission and distribution licence holders and third parties acting on their behalf.
That is narrower than the existing rights in Class B of Part 15 of the GPDO, which apply to statutory electricity undertakers more generally. The Government says the new right is expected to be particularly useful for long linear transmission schemes, where hundreds or even thousands of investigations may be needed.
The proposed limits
The consultation proposes a fairly tight set of limitations and conditions:
- a maximum test depth of 15 metres
- a maximum surface area of 90 square metres for a test
- no removal, felling, lopping or topping of trees, and no activity likely to damage trees
- works normally completed within 28 days
- land restored, so far as practicable, on completion or within 28 days
- temporary buildings and structures no higher than 10 metres and subject to the same 28-day limit
Where investigation works need to continue beyond 28 days, the proposal is that written approval should be obtained from the local planning authority.
Fourteen days’ notice to the council
The proposed right would not be entirely notification-free. The electricity network developer would have to give the local planning authority written notice at least 14 days before works begin.
This is proposed as prior notification rather than a full prior approval process. The consultation asks both whether notification should be required and whether 14 days is the right period.
Designated land would generally remain within the PDR
The Government proposes allowing the new right on most designated land and sites, including National Parks, National Landscapes, World Heritage Sites, the Broads, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Registered Parks and Gardens, battlefields and land associated with listed buildings.
Other consent regimes would still apply. A permitted development right would not remove requirements such as listed building consent, environmental permits or protected-species licences where they are otherwise needed.
One important exclusion is proposed for Scheduled Monuments. Ground investigations and surveys on the site of a Scheduled Monument would not benefit from the new PDR and would continue to be dealt with through the relevant archaeological controls, including Scheduled Monument Consent where applicable.
Existing Class B rights do not disappear
The consultation recognises that Class B of Part 15 already permits certain electricity undertaking works, including the sinking of boreholes to investigate subsoil conditions and associated plant or machinery, subject to its own conditions.
The proposed new PDR is therefore intended to provide a more explicit and wider route for the range of temporary investigations now used before electricity network projects. Until any amendment is actually made, the existing Class B provisions remain the starting point.
Nothing has changed yet
This is a consultation proposal only. No new GPDO class has been created and the existing planning rules continue to apply.
The consultation closes on 4 September 2026. If the Government decides to proceed, secondary legislation will be needed before the new right can be used.
Read the consultation
You can read the consultation on GOV.UK and respond online.
Electricity network ground investigations news page published: 21st August 2026
