Tritax Large Field REIT has delayed the anticipated supply of its Manor Farm information centre in Slough after the planning timetable slipped once more.
A choice from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Native Authorities is now due on or earlier than 9 June 2026, setting the challenge again but once more. In keeping with the corporate, it had beforehand anticipated consent in December 2025, earlier than being informed in December {that a} determination would probably arrive round mid-March 2026.
The revised schedule means sensible completion is now anticipated between October 2027 and March 2028, reasonably than the sooner July to December 2027 window. For a sector already grappling with energy constraints, grid queues and lengthy improvement lead instances, it’s one other instance of how slowly main tasks can transfer from ambition to actuality within the UK.
That awkwardly jars with the Authorities’s current insistence that it’s taking the brakes off infrastructure supply. When the Planning and Infrastructure Act obtained Royal Assent in December 2025, ministers stated it will ‘slash delays and prices’ and assist get crucial infrastructure constructed sooner. The Authorities additionally stated the reforms should speed up major infrastructure projects by 12 months on average.
The rhetoric has solely grown stronger since. In Funds 2025, the Authorities stated it wished to fast-track 150 planning selections on main infrastructure by the tip of this Parliament, whereas judicial evaluation reforms had been billed as a option to minimize additional delays from the system.
None of that adjustments the speedy actuality for Tritax Large Field, which nonetheless wants planning consent earlier than Manor Farm can transfer forward on the timetable it needs. The corporate has stated it stays assured within the challenge’s long-term deserves and nonetheless expects to e-book improvement revenue from Manor Farm in 2026, supported by a profitable planning utility and a pre-let.
However for a Authorities huge on each planning reform and making the UK a frontrunner in AI expertise, it’s a helpful actuality verify. The Authorities could have vowed to reform planning, however till main schemes begin transferring by the system sooner, builders can be forgiven for questioning how a lot has actually modified – and that would in the end impression funding.
