133: NEWS - coalition still intending to abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission

This is entry number 133, first published on 20 May 2010, of a blog on the implementation of the Planning Act 2008. Click here for a link to the whole blog. If you would like to be notified when the blog is updated, with links sent by email, click here.

Today's entry reports on the 'programme for government' announced today.

Last week, the coalition government released its provisional coalition agreement, and it has now worked this up into a nicely-formatted 'programme for government', which was published today and can be found here.

The programme goes into more detail in some areas, most notably (for our purposes) now including the abolition of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), previously signalled in both parties' manifestos, but not mentioned in the provisional coalition agreement.

The exact text is 'We will abolish the unelected Infrastructure Planning Commission and replace it with an efficient and democratically accountable system that provides a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects'. 

The description of the replacement would certainly be a description of the existing Planning Act regime if the words 'and democratically accountable' were omitted, and arguably remains true with those words while the government remains in the position of deciding applications that the IPC has examined.

Government decisions on IPC projects will continue automatically until the relevant National Policy Statement (NPS) has been finalised, which is the point at which the IPC starts to decide applications.  The government can continue to decide applications beyond that time, however, if it exercises its powers of 'intervention' in an application that are already provided for in the Planning Act.

Under those provisions, the government could first issue an order that it can intervene in specified circumstances, and then it will be able to examine each application itself or direct the IPC to examine some or all of the application, and then the government will take the decision. 

To abolish the IPC altogether, however, would need a further Act of Parliament, which would take a few months to draft (assuming it is not already drafted) and then another few months to get through the Parliamentary process.  Indeed, the 'abolition' has long been expected to be less than a dismantling of the process, staff and commissioners.  The process is likely to stay in some form, and most of the staff and commissioners may well be transferred over to the proposed 'Major Infrastructure Unit' of the Planning Inspectorate.

Other policies in the programme for government of relevance are:

Planning

We will create a presumption in favour of sustainable development in the planning system.

We will publish and present to Parliament a simple and consolidated national planning framework covering all forms of development and setting out national economic, environmental and social priorities.

The Community Infrastructure Levy is not mentioned.

Energy

We will seek to increase the target for energy from renewable sources, subject to the advice of the Climate Change Committee.

We will continue public sector investment in carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology for four coal-fired power stations

We will encourage community-owned renewable energy schemes where local people benefit from the power produced. We will also allow communities that host renewable energy projects to keep the additional business rates they generate.

We will deliver an offshore electricity grid in order to support the development of a new generation of offshore wind power.

We will introduce measures to encourage marine energy.

Liberal Democrats have long opposed any new nuclear construction. Conservatives, by contrast, are committed to allowing the replacement of existing nuclear power stations provided that they are subject to the normal planning process for major projects (under a new National Planning Statement), and also provided that they receive no public subsidy.

We will implement a process allowing the Liberal Democrats to maintain their opposition to nuclear power while permitting the Government to bring forward the National Planning Statement for ratification by Parliament so that new nuclear construction becomes possible. This process will involve:
– the Government completing the drafting of a national planning statement and putting it before Parliament;
– specific agreement that a Liberal Democrat spokesperson will speak against the Planning Statement, but that Liberal Democrat MPs will abstain; and
– clarity that this will not be regarded as an issue of confidence.

Transport

We will cancel the third runway at Heathrow.

We will refuse permission for additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.

We will establish a high speed rail network as part of our programme of measures to fulfil our joint ambitions for creating a low carbon economy. Our vision is of a truly national high speed rail network for the whole of Britain. Given financial constraints, we will have to achieve this in phases.

Water and waste

We will examine the conclusions of the Cave and Walker Reviews, and reform the water industry to ensure more efficient use of water and the protection of poorer households.

We will work towards a ‘zero waste’ economy, encourage councils to pay people to recycle, and work to reduce littering.

We will introduce measures to promote a huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion.