Ministers have signed off what the legal order describes as a change 'not materially different' from the application put in for Net Zero Teesside. The Net Zero Teesside (Amendment) Order 2026 was made on 28 July and came into force a day later, on 29 July. According to the legislation.gov.uk text, this is not a fresh green light for an entirely new project. It is a technical amendment to the existing 2024 development consent order, the kind of dry Whitehall paperwork that can still matter a great deal once a big industrial scheme moves from consent into delivery.

The amendment itself is narrow but clear. In Schedule 15 of the 2024 order, the maximum inner diameter for the heat recovery steam generator stack has been changed from 6.5 metres to 9.0 metres, while the absorber stack moves from 6.6 metres to 7.0 metres. Those figures will mean more to engineers than most households, but they matter because they sit inside the legal design parameters for the scheme. When a number in the order changes, the project team gets a revised set of limits to work within.

The application was made under Schedule 6 to the Planning Act 2008, using the 2011 regulations that deal with changes to development consent orders. The Secretary of State said the application, along with responses gathered through the required publicity and consultation process, had been considered before the amendment was approved. That matters because ministers did not treat this as a wholesale rethink. In legal terms, the change was judged to be non-material, which is why it has been handled as a tweak to the existing consent rather than a brand new consent process from scratch.

That will be read locally as another sign of a major Teesside scheme being refined in detail rather than reopened in principle. Big industrial projects are usually sold in broad strokes, but the real movement often comes through measurements, schedules and small amendments such as this one. For local firms watching future work, and for communities keeping a close eye on what is actually being approved, these paper changes are worth noting. They show where the scheme is being adjusted and where government still believes the overall shape of the project remains intact.

What has not changed is just as important. The order does not replace the Net Zero Teesside Order 2024; it amends it. It also follows earlier changes already made to the project paperwork, including a correction order in 2024 and a further amendment in 2025. So the broad direction stays the same while one table in the design parameters is updated. In plain terms, this is the state adjusting the rulebook around the scheme, not rewriting the whole plan for Teesside's low-carbon industrial push.

The order was signed on behalf of the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero by John Wheadon, Head of Energy Infrastructure Planning & Innovation, on 28 July. For residents, business owners and campaigners across Teesside, the immediate takeaway is straightforward enough: the project has moved another step through the legal machinery, and this particular step is about wider stack diameters rather than a bigger political shift. It is technical, but it is now in force.