144: NEWS - Infrastructure Planning Commission 'closes', but may still decide some projects

This is entry number 144, first published on 29 June 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 news on the Planning Act regime from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

The first official announcement of the fate of the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) and National Policy Statements (NPSs) was made today.  In two very similar press releases (here  and here), the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) Minister Greg Clark says that 'today, the coalition is ... putting in place a new fast track process where the people's elected representatives have responsibility for the final decisions about Britan's future instead of unelected commissioners'.

I can't discern anything that has actually happened today except for the announcement, which is timed to coincide with a 'bonfire' of other quangos.  As previously reported, the IPC will be abolished some time after summer 2011, once the proposed Localism Bill is introduced in Parliament at the turn of the year and enacted by July 2011 (the 'Decentralisation and' expected to be dropped from its title).  The heading 'Planning quango closes' is therefore stretching the present continuous a little.

What is interesting is what is said about NPSs.  As previously reported, the existing seven draft NPSs will be revised, reissued and subjected to a vote in Parliament, rather than starting again from scratch. The 3,500 comments made during the public consultation will therefore not be in vain.  The new information is that during the period between any NPS being ratified and the closure of the IPC, the IPC will still decide any applications that get to that stage as originally envisaged in the Planning Act.  If the first NPS is designated by the end of the year, that could give a window of at least six months for the IPC to make decisions.  It having appeared that the IPC would never make a decision, now perhaps it will manage to sneak one or two in.

That the process for considering applications, rather than the body doing the considering, will stay the same is confirmed in the section headed 'transitional arrangements'.  There will be a 'seamless transfer' from the IPC to a new 'Major Infrastructure Planning Unit' of the Planning Inspectorate, enabling the consideration of applications to continue without interruption.  That is the first time the word 'Planning' has appeared in the name of the unit, so it is MIPU that we are looking forward to.

Also confirmed is that the timetable for decision-taking will be no longer than the current regime. Does that mean three months for MIPU to recommend and then three months for the government to decide (as the existing regime without an NPS in place), or three months total for both (as the existing regime with an NPS in place)? We shall see.

Plans for the remaining five National Policy Statments (waste water, national networks (road and rail), hazardous waste, water supply and airports) will be announced in a more detailed implementation plan later this summer.  Watch this space.

Previous entry 143: overview of the Planning Act 2008 - summary up to date to 24 June 2010
Next entry 145: meet the Infrastructure Planning Commissioners