National Policy Statements introduced under the Planning Bill are in danger of jeopardising the whole system, experts have warned.
Delegates at a conference in London voiced concern over NPSs, which will set out national policy in terms of development in different fields, including transport, energy and waste.
The newly-introduced Infrastructure Planning Commission would then decide on a planning application in accordance with the relevant NPS. But Bernadette Kelly, executive director of planning at the Department for Communities and Local Government, provoked criticism when she said there would be ‘a sector by sector approach to the level of site specificity’.
This would lead to a situation where NPS policy would ‘not be consistent’, Pat Thomas, trustee of the Town and Country Planning Association, warned. ‘You don’t want a situation where unclear NPSs come before the IPC,’ she said. ‘If you undermine confidence in the new system, we’re in big trouble.’
Karen Dee, head of infrastructure at the CBI, added: ‘National Policy Statements must interact with each other or the whole system will fall down.’
The conference: The New Regime for National Infrastructure Projects, also heard that the Bill provided neither guidance on small transport schemes such as guided busways, nor provision for local authority ‘cross-border’ schemes.
‘In essence, not much will change for smaller schemes,’ Robbie Owen, partner at Bircham Dyson Bell, said. He also warned the bill would not facilitate the funding process. ‘We will still have separate issue of trying to get schemes funding even if they go smoothly through the planning process.’
The Planning Bill is expected to enter the House of Lords in April or May.
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