Angela Rayner introduces the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
Last Tuesday, Secretary of State Angela Rayner introduced the much-anticipated Planning and Infrastructure Bill to the House of Commons.
With the Bill running to over 150 pages, and likely to have its details amended as it passes through various stages in Parliament, we’ve focused on 3 broader impacts of the Bill, and what this reveals about Government’s long-term plans.
Government is moving to put more decisions in the hands of officers, and out of the hands of political planning committees.
The Bill establishes the Secretary of State will set out a national scheme of delegation, which will set out exactly which planning functions will be delegated to officers, rather than committees. In practice, this will mean more applications delegated to officers, with councillors only expected to be involved in larger schemes. The Bill also empowers the Secretary of State to set a maximum size for planning committees, and ensure planning committee members complete mandatory training, however the details on these are not included in the bill.
Government is centralising planning.
Whilst seeking to move more decisions to council officers, the Secretary of State is also looking to make certain aspects more centralised and strategic.
A new ‘Nature Restoration Fund’ will be formed, which developers will pay in to after agreeing an ‘Environmental Delivery Plan’ with Natural England; this will presumably allow developers to circumvent buying local, project specific BNG credits, whilst allowing a more strategic, national response to nature recovery. This should speed up this part of the system.
Nationally Significant Infrastructure is being streamlined, with the Bill removing certain notification and consultation obligations (as well as the right to appeal against consent orders in certain instances), and more generally the Bill includes provisions to ensure the system is “flexible enough to accommodate the complexity and volume of projects in the years to come”.
Combined Authorities (which will soon cover the nation) will be required to produce Spatial Development Strategies (a replacement for the Blair Government’s Regional Spatial Strategies and the Cameron Government’s Duty to Co-Operate ? ) as part of the development plan for their area: this is another example of aspects of planning (in this case certain strategic policies and housing targets) being moved up the ‘org chart’, so to speak. Again, this looks positive. SP Broadway has long believed many planning related issues have impacts beyond the immediate area and cross local government boundaries.
Government is looking to encourage large-scale development and regeneration
The Bill reforms Compulsory Purchase Orders by extending more powers to town and parish councils (the removal of “hope value”) and by removing certain notification requirements to reduce costs. Development Corporations are also strengthened by adding greater flexibility in terms of the variety, extent and types of areas they can operate in. Both measures are often used in large-scale development and regeneration proposals.
The second reading of the Bill is scheduled for the 24th of March. As the Bill moves through Parliament, the Government may well accept changes and it will be interesting to see exactly where/ how the Government set the threshold for delegated housing decisions – perhaps they will set the threshold for planning committee consideration at over 100 homes, 10 or somewhere in between?
This could be a serious game changer for the sector.
