Scotland intends to bring a new Major Projects Office into operation during 2026–27, alongside consultation on changes to planning and consenting. Housing and energy are expressly named among the sectors it aims to support.
For developers and landowners, the important distinction is between a commitment to help projects move forward and a new power to grant consent. The announcement sets out the former. It does not establish a new statutory planning application route.
Compulsory-purchase reform is also moving forward, but proposals for Compulsory Sale Orders and Compulsory Lease Orders remain exploratory. They should not be described as powers that have already been introduced.
What will the Major Projects Office do?
The Programme for Government 2026–31, published on 1st September, commits to starting the office during 2026–27. Its proposed remit is to help nationally and strategically significant investment and private-capital projects overcome barriers to delivery.
It is not described as an office dealing only with public infrastructure. The stated intention includes attracting private investment, with housing and energy specifically identified.
The First Minister’s statement to Parliament uses the same project-delivery emphasis. Neither that statement nor the Programme sets a precise opening day, a financial threshold for eligible schemes or a published application process for approaching the office.
The practical questions are therefore still important: which projects will qualify, who can refer them, how priorities will be selected and what help an accepted project will actually receive.
Is this a new consenting authority?
Not on the basis of the material published so far. The Programme does not confer statutory decision-making powers on the Major Projects Office or say that it will replace local planning authorities, Scottish Ministers or existing sector-specific consenting bodies.
The existing Planning and Environmental Appeals Division, or DPEA, administers planning and environmental casework. Scottish Government reporters decide most appeals on behalf of Ministers; in recalled cases they report and recommend, with Ministers taking the decision.
The Scottish Government’s planning appeals guide explains those arrangements. The new announcement does not describe a transfer of those functions to the Major Projects Office.
Its detailed relationship with DPEA, planning authorities, Ministers and other consenting systems remains to be published. For now, the sensible reading is a project-coordination and delivery commitment, not an alternative place to submit a planning application.
Nor should this be treated as an English national infrastructure or Crown Development procedure transplanted into Scotland. The Scottish announcement needs to be assessed on its own terms.
When will planning reform be consulted on?
The Programme commits to beginning consultation during 2026–27 on reforms intended to simplify planning and consenting, with implementation starting from 2027–28.
It also commits to increasing planning-system capacity. However, the relevant passages do not specify a new staffing allocation, funding total or a guaranteed turnaround time for an individual application.
As checked on 7th September, the sources reviewed do not provide the detailed planning and consenting consultation, its closing date or a measure-by-measure implementation timetable.
That distinction matters when programming a development. An intention to speed up the system is not yet an amended statutory deadline, a reduced information requirement or a guarantee that a particular consent will be obtained more quickly.
Compulsory purchase has a more developed reform programme
The compulsory-purchase commitment is supported by more detailed primary material. The Government’s 26th August report, Compulsory Purchase Reform in Scotland: The Way Forward, follows consultation held between September and December 2025.
It commits to legislation during this parliamentary term, with the intention of replacing fragmented older law with a single Compulsory Purchase Act covering procedure and compensation.
The anticipated measures include clearer timescales, changes to handling objections and unopposed orders, electronic documents, new rights such as servitudes, temporary possession and a single mechanism for taking possession after an order is approved.
Compensation reform is also proposed, including encouraging earlier settlement and advance payments. Some issues remain unresolved, including aspects of statutory loss payments and how compensation should account for hope value.
The Year One legislative programme lists nine Bills, but does not include a Compulsory Purchase Bill. A commitment to legislation in this Parliament should not be presented as a confirmed first-year Bill or an operative new power.
What about compulsory sale and lease orders?
These are not simply alternative names for compulsory purchase. The separate sale and lease section of the August report says neither proposed mechanism currently exists and that their operation is still being explored.
For Compulsory Sale Orders, the Government intends to investigate whether they would offer clear advantages over existing compulsory-purchase powers used to acquire property for onward disposal. It also intends to continue examining Compulsory Lease Orders and the implications of leasing without an owner’s consent.
They are part of the wider policy discussion, but the published material does not confirm that both will be included in the forthcoming compulsory-purchase legislation.
What should developers and landowners do now?
For a potentially qualifying strategic scheme, prepare a clear account of what is actually holding it up. Is the barrier an unresolved planning issue, another consent, infrastructure, land assembly, finance or a combination? That is more useful than assuming a new office will remove every obstacle.
Keep the current consent and land-acquisition programme running. Do not build an appraisal around shorter decision periods, changed compensation or new compulsory-sale powers that have not been enacted.
When the consultation and the office’s operating arrangements appear, check eligibility, referral routes, accountability and the relationship with existing decision-makers. Those details will determine how useful the reforms are in practice.
For landowners facing potential acquisition, the proposals are worth following closely, but advice on a live case must still start with the law and powers that apply now.
This report concerns Scotland. Planning Geek’s wider planning news coverage identifies developments across different jurisdictions; guidance on an English planning procedure should not be assumed to apply to a Scottish project.
Prepared: 7th September 2026
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