Policy News

Thursday 07 January 2010

Unless the national planning policy framework for energy is "significantly" revised the UK could end up with a carbon intensive energy mix, a chief planner has warned.

Speaking at the Energy and Climate Change Committee's first oral evidence session for its inquiry into the National Policy Statements for Energy yesterday (January 6), chief planner at the Town and Country Planning Association, Hugh Ellis, also argued that the proposed framework needs to provide a clearer role for the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC).

Energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband launched the six draft National Policy Statements (NPS's) for consultation in November 2009.

The draft statements aim to remove unnecessary planning delays facing large energy proposals including renewable energy developments and will be the basis on which individual planning decisions are made from March by the new IPC (see this NewEnergyFocus.com story).

At yesterday's meeting, committee Chair, Labour MP for Sherwood, Paddy Tipping, kicked off the inquiry by asking witness, Mr Ellis, if the National Policy Statements, in their current shape, were ready to be adopted.

In response, Mr Ellis of the Town and Country Planning Association - which campaigns for the reform of the UK's planning system to make it more responsive to people's needs and to promote sustainable development - said: "We don't think they are without significant revision.

"It is very clear these documents are very important and there are critical issues around content. They do not represent the kind of framework we need."

He added that from a planning perspective it was hard to see how the NPS's could be put into good order in the time scale available.

Labour MP for Morley and Rothwell, Colin Challen, then asked what would make the framework successful.

Mr Ellis explained that more detail was needed in the NPS's to allow people to understand them.

He said: "Given the complexity of the issues I think every organisation has struggled to respond to NPS's - we need detail from the relevant departments on how they will be applied.

"The risk is huge - we really need this framework and as it stands it could be a big missed opportunity."

Mr Ellis also criticised the government for failing to engage with the public on the framework, claiming the documents had not had a public voice.

He said: "It is creating an environment of suspicion. It is absolutely worthwhile to make every effort possible to create a public debate.

"I can find no-one who is aware that we are about to launch the most important programme in the last 40 years."

The planner claimed that the government should have made use of new media to get the message across and stressed that the benchmarks of the framework should have been set out in detail.

IPC

In terms of the role of the Infrastructure Planning Commission - a new independent body which will make decisions on applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects including large wind farms - Mr Ellis said he believed it should "at least be accountable for the carbon it approves" - claiming that the body should have more control over the energy mix of planning applications going through the framework.

He argued that the IPC should have the capacity to alert government if more applications for gas rather than renewables, for example, are put through.

With the current policy framework proposals, Mr Ellis went on to explain: "As a planner, I don't know how to consider need in the energy mix and so would struggle to make some of the most significant decisions for our future.

"The IPC needs to understand need so that we don't end up with a carbon intensive energy mix."

Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, Desmond Turner, then asked Mr Ellis to consider whether setting out a hierarchy of the energy mix in the NPS's would help - effectively highlighting renewables as a top priority for the IPC and placing fossil fuel applications at the bottom of the list.

This suggestion was met with some enthusiasm by Mr Ellis, although he reaffirmed that the IPC would then need to employ judgement on applications.

Finally, Mr Ellis commented on the importance of renewables in the energy mix. He claimed: "If we are going to have any chance of tackling climate change we need to maximise to the greatest degree our renewable sources."

The Committee was also due to hear evidence from Matt Thomson, acting director of the Royal Town Planning Institute and Sue Percy, director of Planning Aid, but they were unable to attend due to weather conditions.