NSIP Consents Specialists · DCO · Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025
SPS is a specialist consents consultancy for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, focused on the two stages where DCO delivery is actually won or lost, pre-application strategy and post-consent requirement discharge. Credible, agile, and without the big consultancy price tag.
The large consultancies carry significant overhead and spread their teams thin across unfamiliar regimes. SPS delivers focused, senior-level consents expertise — on NSIP projects specifically, nothing else.
Consents strategy set badly at the start compounds through the whole programme, and DCO Requirements only turn into real risk once construction starts. SPS specialises in these two stages, pre-application governance and post-consent discharge, rather than spreading thin across the full DCO timeline.
The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 is reshaping how NSIPs are consented. SPS tracks legislative change as it happens and translates it into practical programme implications for clients.
Every DCO project moves through the same statutory stages, but the consents demands at each stage are different. SPS specialises in the two stages either side of examination, where governance is set and where risk actually lands, with working process knowledge of application and examination in between from direct interface experience. Here is what we do and when we do it.
Before anything is submitted, the consents strategy defines whether a project is deliverable on programme. Poor decisions here compound through every subsequent stage.
This is where a project's fate is largely decided, and where most consultants either coordinate the submission or manage the ExA relationship directly. SPS's role here is at the delivery interface, keeping construction and design proposals aligned to what's being examined and agreed, rather than running the submission or the examination itself.
The decision is the beginning, not the end. DCO Requirements, pre-commencement conditions, and LPA discharge processes continue to carry consents risk into construction.
At the major consultancies, the senior planner who wins your project often hands it to a junior team. At SPS, the person you speak to is the person doing the work. Chartered, experienced, and accountable directly to you.
Direct deliveryNSIP consents expertise should not be the exclusive preserve of promoters with eight-figure professional fees budgets. SPS works with developers, contractors, EPC firms, and supply chain businesses of all sizes, on day-rate and fixed-fee bases.
Transparent pricingSPS carries no internal overhead to recover through your fees. Every pound spent goes into the work. For clients who have been through a large consultancy and felt the cost did not match the output, the difference is immediate.
Lean structureThe statutory consents framework is evolving. New infrastructure categories are being brought within scope, thresholds are changing, and the examination process is being reformed. SPS tracks this landscape continuously.
The DCO regime now covers a broader range of infrastructure types than ever before. If you are unsure whether your project requires DCO consent or could benefit from it, that is precisely the conversation SPS exists to have.
Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 compliantHVDC, HVAC, converter stations, overhead line, substations
Generation, export cabling, onshore grid connection
Pipeline infrastructure, compressor stations, import terminals
New nuclear, carbon capture and storage, battery storage
Strategic reservoirs, water transfer, major treatment works
Strategic highways, rail, ports and harbour infrastructure
Large-scale hyperscale facilities approaching NSIP thresholds
If you are unsure whether your project falls within the NSIP regime, get in touch
SPS (Strategic Project Services Ltd) is led by Drewe Russell MRTPI, a Chartered Town Planner with direct delivery experience across major UK energy infrastructure consents, spanning large-scale electricity transmission and hydrogen pipeline NSIPs, from pre-application strategy through to post-consent requirement discharge.
That experience spans both Local Planning Authority determination and promoter and contractor-side DCO delivery, from pre-application through to post-consent discharge. Most planning consultancies treat NSIPs as one service line among many. SPS exists solely in this space, which means the understanding of the Planning Inspectorate process, examination dynamics, and the interface between consents and construction runs significantly deeper than a generalist firm can offer.
Chartered Town Planner (MRTPI) status, held under the Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 framework.
Every engagement begins with a scoping conversation to confirm fit and availability. SPS works on a day-rate or fixed-fee basis, with capacity and mobilisation timescales agreed at enquiry stage.
| Factor | Large consultancy | SPS |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | Variable team, often junior | Senior, chartered, always |
| NSIP specialism | One team among many | Only thing we do |
| Fee structure | High day rates, large teams | Day-rate or fixed fee |
| Mobilisation | Weeks to onboard | Agreed at enquiry stage |
| Accountability | Account manager layer | Direct to director |
| Supply chain fit | Rarely structured for it | Structured for it from the outset |
Whether you are a developer, EPC contractor, supply chain firm, or landowner with an infrastructure project on the horizon, SPS can help you understand the consents route and what it takes to get there.
Initial conversations are without obligation. All enquiries are treated in confidence.
Projects taken on a day-rate or fixed-fee basis. Framework arrangements considered.
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