February 2008 

There is a clear need for reform of the planning process – the current system is very slow, bureaucratic, complicated and cumbersome. Decisions on planning of major infrastructure projects currently involve multiple applications to different bodies under several Acts of Parliament.

 The UK must implement the national infrastructure necessary for the twenty-first century: upgrading our railway network, building renewable energy power stations, and improving our port facilities. It currently takes far too long to meet these challenges, with public inquiries tending to debate national policy rather than the local impact of projects. The complexity of the process prevents many people from having their views heard adequately, which is why I believe this new Bill will improve public participation in the planning process.

This Bill will enable national infrastructure projects to form part of a nationwide debate on the type of projects the country needs, while allowing individual planning inquiries to be conducted at a local level within this framework. The current system favours those who are well coordinated and resourced to influence the application process – for example professional lobby bodies who regularly access the planning process. However for local communities, who may only become involved occasionally, the process is extremely difficult to comprehend. That is why it is necessary to simplify the process, so that local communities have a fair chance of understanding and influencing it.

This Bill will provide every person with a right to be heard. For the first time, developers will be required to consult local communities, and other key stakeholders such as charitable bodies, before they submit an application. Environmental impact assessments will also become a statutory obligation, and the government will provide additional funding for hard to reach groups to have their say in the process.

Public inquiries for planning applications currently take a very long time. For local people wishing to make their voice heard, this often means taking a long time off work, extensive travel to the inquiry and paying for expensive barristers to represent them. We are proposing to make the inquiry process much easier: inquiries will be shorter, more focused on the direct local impact rather than national policy, and people will be able to represent themselves.

The Bill will help to clarify and improve parliamentary accountability of the planning process. Under the current system, appeals and inquiries are quasi-judicial, with Ministers having little say over the outcome. In deciding on planning applications the two major factors to consider are national need and local impact – clearly there will be times when these two concerns are in conflict. However this Bill will make the accountability for such decisions fairer.

The Bill proposes that the Government sets a broad national framework, aimed at providing coherent and long-term guidance based on need. But it wouldn’t be right for parliament to take the decisions as there could be a tendency to favour national policy. That is why this Bill establishes an independent Infrastructure Planning Commission, composed of experts to rule on the planning application process. The IPC will consider both the broad national planning strategy set by parliament and the local concerns represented in the consultation and inquiry stages. It will then be able to make impartial and informed decisions on a case by case basis.

If we are serious about tackling the big challenges the UK faces, such as climate change, we need to introduce these reforms to our planning system. The world’s climate cannot wait while important projects such as wind farms, better public transportation, carbon capture and storage power stations and eco-towns are held up in bureaucratic inquiries for many years.

I hope you will agree that the Planning Reform Bill is the best way to enable us to meet these challenges, while at the same time increasing public participation and access to the process.