Planning Bill
11-06-08
The Planning Bill was introduced to the House of Commons in November 2007, becoming the Planning Act 2008 a year later. It will introduce a new approval system for "nationally significant" infrastructure in England and Wales.
In an attempt to avoid long public inquiries into projects, a new Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) is to be appointed to take decisions on "nationally significant" facilities that, under the old planning system, would have had final decisions made by the Secretary of State.
The IPC would include experts from the community, local government, planning and environment sectors.
The Commission's decisions would be taken against new national policy statements, for example the Renewable Energy Strategy expected to be published by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform early in 2009.
"Nationally significant"
For energy projects, the definition of "nationally significant" means the IPC is likely to have the final say on onshore generation projects generating 50MW of power or more, and offshore projects generating 100MW or more. It will also take decisions on the installation of electricity lines above ground, gas reception facilities, storage and pipe-lines. Renewable projects below the 50MW onshore and 100MW offshore thresholds will continue to be dealt with locally.
Under 'exceptional' circumstances, where energy generation projects are below the IPC threshold ministers will be able to step in and determine them "nationally significant". The government has said it will draw up criteria to define when such a possibility could occur.
For those projects that do not meet the threshold to be determined by the Commission, the Planning Bill also throws in some statutory provisions that mean local authority planners are legally required to take account of the need to tackle climate change in their decision-making processes.
Criticism
The major criticism of the Planning Bill's reforms is that major planning decisions will be taken by an unelected group. During the assessment of the Bill in Parliament, the government has argued that it will not take local communities out of the planning process. Opposition politicians have not been so sure, and the Conservative Party has stated that if elected, it would move to abolish the IPC.
At a local level, the Planning Bill will provide a stronger link to local democracy, reforming the appeals system so that appeals for minor developments would be heard by a panel of local councillors - known as Local Member Review Bodies - rather than a planning inspector.
It's important to note that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each have fully devolved responsibility for town and country planning policy, including different planning systems to that in England. However, the government in Westminster has said it is working "closely" with the devolved administrations "to ensure the provisions in the Bill provide for the UK planning systems to operate effectively alongside each other".
Marine planning systems - for offshore wind, wave and tidal projects - are being improved through the Marine and Coastal Access Bill, which started its Parliamentary process in December 2008.
