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Planning for a Sustainable Future

Date of statement	27 November 2007
Type	Written

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In the white paper Planning for a Sustainable Future, published on 21 May 2007, we set out a wide-ranging package of proposals for reform of the planning system.

Planning is critical to protecting the countryside and our environment, building sustainable homes and communities, and supporting growth and prosperity. It also plays a vital role in ensuring individuals and local communities have a say in what gets built.  

Since 1997 we have made major improvements to town and country planning: more houses are being built, with better use of brownfield land; more development in town centres is helping to revitalise our towns and cities; planning decisions are being made quicker; and we have made the system more efficient and customer focused.

But significant problems remain. The planning system remains too complex, bureaucratic and inefficient. These problems are particularly acute for major infrastructure projects, which are subject to different planning regimes. Currently a single project may require consent under numerous different regimes. Lack of clarity in national policy, poor preparation of specific project proposals, lengthy and adversarial inquiry processes and slow decision-making, means that some planning decisions have taken years.

These delays, combined with the lack of certainty in the system, can result in high costs for business; prolonged uncertainty and blight for communities; and pose a serious threat to UK competitiveness, growth and jobs.   Moreover delays in the provision of essential infrastructure needed to ensure clean, secure energy and water supplies and decent transport have quality of life implications for everyone.

We need to ensure that the planning system enables us to meet the long term challenges we face as a society:

• to meet our climate change objectives by speeding up the shift to renewable and low carbon energy, supporting the development of low and zero carbon homes and businesses; and ensuring development is resilient to the impacts of climate change;
• to achieve our target of 3 million new homes by 2020 so current and future generations have access to a decent home at a price they can afford;
• to enable us to meet the challenge of globalisation by being  efficient and responsive to business needs; and supporting the development of vital infrastructure, such as ports, roads and airports, needed to ensure that the UK continues to attract investment and jobs;
• to provide certainty for investment in new infrastructure such as power stations, gas storage facilities and electricity networks need to ensure energy supplies are secure. 

Our proposals for planning reform are a central part of the Government's wider agenda for addressing these long term challenges in a way which demonstrates our commitment to achieving  a prosperous economy and high quality of life for all; while also reducing carbon emissions and protecting the environment.

The white paper proposed that we should establish a new, single consent regime for nationally significant transport, energy, water and waste infrastructure projects under which:

• The Government will set out in National Policy Statements the case for nationally significant infrastructure, integrating social, economic and environmental policies.  These statements will be subject to thorough public consultation, appraisal of sustainability and Parliamentary scrutiny;
• Developers will be required to consult local communities and other key stakeholders as they prepare those projects and before they submit an application;
• Decisions on applications will be made by an independent Infrastructure Planning Commission using streamlined inquiry procedures. Inquiries and decisions would be subject to statutory timetables.

Responses to the white paper have indicated that there is clear agreement that the current system is not working effectively. Our proposals have been widely welcomed including by business and many in the planning community and local government.  

However a number of issues and concerns have been raised. Questions have arisen in particular about:

• how we propose to take forward the proposals for National Policy Statements;
• the need to ensure sustainable development is central to the new regime;
• ensuring people can influence and participate in policy and decisions;
• ensuring decisions are fair and accountable.

 
The proposal to produce National Policy Statements for major infrastructure sectors has been welcomed by the large majority of respondents to the White Paper. Over the forthcoming months, my colleagues the Secretaries of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, Transport, and the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs will set out further details of how they propose to ensure national policy in their infrastructure sectors is clearly set out; a short summary of proposals is at Annex A.

We acknowledge that it is essential to ensure that our objectives in relation to sustainable development are central to consideration of future infrastructure needs. The Bill will therefore include a duty on Ministers to ensure that National Policy Statements are drawn up with the objective of contributing to the achievement of sustainable development. We will also make it a requirement that all National Policy Statements should be subject to an appropriate appraisal of the sustainability of the policy they set out.

The Bill will also put effective public consultation and participation at the heart of all three key stages in the regime:

• By creating a clear duty to ensure effective public consultation on National Policy Statements.  We intend that this consultation should include positive and proactive means of engaging citizens and communities. Where National Policy Statements identify locations or potential locations for development, there will be a duty to consult in those locations.
• By placing clear legal obligations on developers to consult local communities before they submit a planning application, and ensure that this consultation is of high quality. 
•  By making planning inquiries accessible and ensuring peoples' rights to be heard are protected. In particular the Bill will make it clear that any person who registers an interest can give oral evidence at relevant stages of the inquiry.

In order to support more effective engagement with communities and hard to reach groups, we will be increasing the resources we provide to bodies that promote community engagement in planning.  We also intend that local authorities should have an important role in ensuring the views of the communities they represent are fully reflected.

Finally, the Bill will strengthen accountability and ensure decision-making is fair and transparent:

• Government Ministers will be clearly accountable for setting overall policy. There will be a clear distinction between responsibility for setting policy, and responsibility for the quasi-judicial decisions; 
• Parliament will have a stronger role in scrutinising national policy. 
• The Infrastructure Planning Commission will be required to take decisions within a clear framework of legal duties set by Parliament and policy set by Government. It will also be subject to requirements designed to ensure full accountability to Ministers, Parliament and the public.

To provide the stronger role for Parliament, we encourage the House to establish a new Select Committee with the main purpose of holding inquiries into draft National Policy Statements in parallel with public consultation.  We suggest that this Committee should be comprised of members from existing Select Committees on Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, on Transport and on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

We will consider the Committee's reports together with responses to public consultation and revise draft National Policy Statements where appropriate, before designating them.  In addition, if the Committee has recommended that a National Policy Statement raises issues which should be debated by Parliament as a whole, we will make available time in each House for a debate before we designate it.

This model - in which decisions are taken independently, on an objective basis, by a body with no role in promoting particular policy outcomes - offers clear benefits in terms of increased transparency and certainty to both applicants and the public.

We have noted concerns that the White Paper may have defined too narrowly the matters the IPC may take into account in reaching decisions. We are clear that the National Policy statement should be the primary policy consideration for the Commission. However we agree that the Commission must be able in taking decisions to have discretion to take account of all information specific to the case before it which it considers relevant and important to its decision, including all such local impacts. The Bill will make it clear that this is the case.

We have also concluded that there may be some very exceptional circumstances in which it would not be appropriate to leave final decisions to the Commission. These circumstances would arise where new issues or evidence are raised relevant to an application before the Commission which are so significant that the Government considers they may justify a change of national policy. 

Where this was the case, the relevant Secretary of State could direct the Commission to suspend consideration of the application until he or she had reviewed the National Policy Statement. However where there is an application before the IPC which needs to be determined urgently in the national interest, the Bill will enable the Secretary of State to direct the IPC to produce a recommendation with the final decision to be taken by the Minister. We would expect such cases to be very rare so the Bill will therefore set out clearly the conditions that will apply to the exercise of this power.

Overall we believe that our proposals for major infrastructure will reduce the average time taken for large applications by a half. By doing so, they will save between £3.8 and £4.8bn in costs up to 2030. And they will do this while extending our commitment to ensure sustainable development is at the heart of planning; strengthening opportunities for public consultation and engagement; and improving accountability.

In addition to our proposals for reform of major infrastructure, the Bill will include a number of significant measures aimed at ensuring that the town and country planning better supports housing growth and climate change, and is more streamlined and efficient.

The Bill will implement our proposals to introduce a new charge, entitled the Community Infrastructure Levy, to enable local authorities to secure a bigger contribution from developers towards the costs of infrastructure. We are pleased that our proposals have been widely welcomed by developers and local government.  We will publish further details of the proposals on my Department's website.

Local plans have a key part to play in enabling local authorities to set a clear strategic vision for their communities. The Bill will therefore include a number of provisions to make plan-making simpler and more flexible, which will be supported by a revised Planning Policy Statement. It will also include a new duty on local authorities to take action on climate change through local plans. This duty will be underpinned by a new Planning Policy Statement on climate change which we will publish before the end of the year.

Finally, the Bill will include provisions to reduce the number of planning applications, speed up appeals and simplify the tree preservation order system. It will include provisions which would enable Local Member Review Bodies to determine appeals. 

These provisions in the Bill will be supported by a range of measures to make it easier for homeowners to extend their homes and to install microgeneration technology, to introduce new Planning Performance Agreements which will ensure large applications are dealt with effectively, and to allow an increase in fees for planning applications in order to enable local authorities to improve the quality of service they provide.  We also intend to consult on a new Planning Policy Statement on economic development before the end of the year.   

Further details of these and other reforms are set out in the Government's summary of responses to the White Paper consultation, published today and which has been placed in the libraries of both Houses, and to the related consultations which will be published shortly.

The Planning Bill will play a key part in delivering on this Government's long-term vision for Britain. Alongside legislation on Housing and Regeneration, Climate Change, Energy and Local Transport this Bill will help to deliver our objectives in relation to housing, climate change, energy security, transport provision, and prosperity and quality of life for all. The Planning Bill will do this by ensuring that we have an efficient planning system which produces fair and transparent outcomes on decisions which are vital both to the local communities they most affect, and to the long term challenges facing us as a nation.

Annex on National Policy Statements

Energy

The Government will publish an overarching national policy statement covering key elements of energy policy relevant to infrastructure provision, such as climate change, security of supply and the energy market, and including information relevant to likely future demand and measures to secure energy efficiency.

Energy national policy statements will also be expected to encompass different forms of energy generation such as fossil fuels, renewable energy, electricity networks and gas infrastructure

Transport

The Government's aim is to establish a suite of national policy statements that will comprise:

• a statement for aviation incorporating the 2003 Air Transport White Paper in a way which meets our proposed policy and statutory requirements for National Policy Statements; we are already committed to produce a further progress report between 2009 and 2011, which would provide a good opportunity to designate the ATWP in conjunction with that report;
• a statement for ports, possibly incorporating international freight, based on the work already undertaken as part of the ports policy review;
• a statement for the strategic national highway and rail networks focusing primarily on the highway network, given that comprehensive plans for the rail network were published earlier this year in the HLOS and supporting rail White Paper.

These statements will over time be aligned with the overarching transport strategy now under development, reflecting the cross-modal approach recommended by Rod Eddington, in order to ensure a consistent analytical and policy framework. The recent discussion document Towards a Sustainable Transport System sets out how the Department proposes to develop this strategy, working with transport users and other stakeholders over the period to 2012.

Water infrastructure

The Government will set out updated policies for water supply and water quality in a new Water Strategy, Future Water, which is due to be published early in 2008. This will inform development of a new national policy statement on infrastructure development for water supply and waste water treatment for the period from 2010 to 2035. The national policy statement will also be informed by parallel to planning and price review processes such as the Water Resource Management Plans which water companies will produce and the quinquennial reviews of water company sewerage charges.

Waste disposal

A national policy statement on waste will set out the Government's objectives for the development of waste infrastructure for the period to 2020 and will be based substantially on the Waste Strategy for England which was published in May 2007 after extensive consultation and engagement. We expect to prepare a waste national policy statement which will draw out and, if necessary, strengthen material in the Waste Strategy to enable the IPC to make decisions on projects coming forward.

Offshore renewables

The IPC and the Marine Management Organisation proposed under the Marine Bill White Paper will have responsibilities for consents to offshore renewables projects of specific generating capacities. Both will operate in accordance with consistent Government policy in this area whether set out in the relevant NPS or in the Marine Policy Statement.