148: NEWS - second consultation announced on energy National Policy Statements

This is entry number 148, first published on 15 July 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 announcement that there will be further consultation on the energy National Policy Statements.

Yesterday, Charles Hendry MP, Energy Minister, announced that a second consultation would take place on the six energy National Policy Statements (NPSs), with a view to them being designated in spring 2011.  No date for the start of the consultation has yet been given - it will be reported on this blog as soon as it is announced, or actually starts.

The main reason given for the re-consultation is that changes have been made to the Appraisals of Sustainability (AoSs) for the NPSs, the AoS for the Overarching Energy NPS EN-1 in particular.  Appraisals of Sustainability are documents that set out the expected environmental, economic and social impacts of the 'plan or programme' that the NPS represents.  They therefore encompass the EU requirement of Strategic Environmental Assessment, which is the equivalent of environmental impact assessment but for policies rather than projects.

The AoSs were the subject of considerable criticism from witnesses appearing before the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee of the House of Commons when it considered the draft NPSs.  The main difference of opinion was between the government and environmental organisations as to what the alternatives were to the 'plan or programme' being appraised in the AoS.  Should it be an appraisal of just the proposal to have an NPS compared with not having one (the government's view), or of the policies contained in the NPS compared with other policies (the environmental organisations' view)?  The select committee pointed out in its report (here) that the Nuclear Power NPS EN-6 did consider the difference between having an NPS that encouraged new nuclear power stations compared with an NPS that said there shouldn't be any, which was more in the 'alternatives are different policies' category, whereas the AoS of the other five energy NPSs was in the 'alternatives are NPS or no NPS' category.  The select committee also concluded that the government should issue guidance on what AoSs should contain, and each AoS "should also make a better assessment of the cumulative environmental impacts of new generating capacity; provide more guidance for the IPC on the expectations on developers to monitor the environmental impacts of their developments; and link more explicitly the appraisals to the NPSs."

It is not yet clear whether the revisions to the AoSs will make them more to the liking of the environmental organisations or not, or at least appraise alternative energy policies, but this will of course be revealed when the revised drafts are published.

The other NPS that was published in draft in November last year is the Ports NPS, but the latest announcement does not cover it, nor has there been an equivalent announcement from the Department for Transport.  It could therefore take more or less time to designation than the energy NPSs.

In a separate development, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) published its draft 'Structural Reform Plan', which can be found here.  Milestone C on page 9 is to abolish the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) and replace it with the Major Infrastructure Planning Unit, which we knew already, but this is stated not to happen until April 2012, which is later than previously expected.  Thus if the NPSs are designated in spring 2011 as intended, and the abolition of the IPC is as now timetabled, it will have a full year of being able to make decisions on applications for nationally significant infrastructure projects - possibly longer if the Ports NPS beats the energy NPSs to designation.

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