In British planning law, the term safeguarding refers to provisions that protects future infrastructure projects such as roads, railways, utilities and other infrastructure projects from conflicting development. Safeguarding of a project does not prohibit development, but ensures that any development allows for the future infrastructure project to be built and protects the land that would make building a future project more difficult. Safeguarding of a particular project does not guarantee that the infrastructure will be built in future, and does not allow for

compulsory purchase Compulsion, Compulsive, Compelling, or Compulsory may refer to: Psychology * Compulsive behavior, a psychological condition in which a person does a behavior compulsively, having an overwhelming feeling that they must do so. * Obsessive–compu ...

of land or the power to start construction. Those permissions have to be obtained through other legal processes, such as a

Transport and Works Act Order The Transport and Works Act 1992 (c. 42) (TWA) was established by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to provide a system by which the construction of rail transport, tramway, inland waterway and harbour infrastructure could proceed in the UK ...

or a

hybrid bill In the United Kingdom a hybrid bill (which becomes a hybrid instrument or hybrid act) is a government measure which affects a particular individual or organisation in a different manner to other individuals or companies in the same class; it thus ...

. Formal Safeguarding Directions to confirm the safeguard of a project are issued by the relevant secretary of state. Examples of projects that have been safeguarded include

Crossrail 2 Crossrail 2 is a suspended proposal for a hybrid commuter rail and rapid transit route in South East England, running from nine stations in Surrey to three in Hertfordshire, providing a new North–South rail link across Greater London. It wou ...

, the

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and

High Speed 2 High Speed 2 (HS2) is a high-speed railway which has been under construction in England since 2019. The line's planned route is between Handsacre – in southern Staffordshire – and London, with a Spur line, branch to Birmingham. HS2 is to ...

Passive provision

Safeguarding can also refer to efforts to allow future infrastructure to be built more easily, such as a straight piece of railway line at the location of a planned future station, or space for a future service area on a

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. This is sometimes referred to as 'passive provision'.

References

United Kingdom planning law {{UK-planning-stub