Links

The White Paper (Press release from Dept of Communities and Local Government)

The Barker review of housing needs

The Barker review of land use planning

Reactions to Barker

RIBA

Friends of the Earth

The Civic Trust (Word document)

Reactions to the White Paper and Barker

RTPI

The Planning White Paper and Wales

An initial briefing

As of year end 2007 the approach that WAG will take to the practical aspects of the planned legislation has not been clarified.

A fuller overview can be read here [pdf: 1mb]

There has been considerable publicity for the UK government's planning white paper, which signals possibly the biggest shake-up in town and country planning since the Attlee government implemented the first planning act sixty years ago. The Trust has received a number of inquiries wondering about its relevance to Wales.

Further concern has been expressed because of the influence on UK government intentions of the Barker reviews of housing needs and the planning system, which have been heavily criticised for both the quality of their analysis and for proposals to liberalise the planning system in a way that would make it easier, for instance, to get permission for major out of town retail developments.

There is no doubt about the influence on the White Paper of the Barker review. Amongst the key proposals are:

• A new national policy framework set by Ministers and parliament setting out how we will meet the country’s key infrastructure needs for the next 10-25 years, bringing it together under one legal framework. This will be subject to public consultation.
• A new stronger inquiry system. This will be led by an independent commission consisting of leading experts from key sectors — including planners, lawyers, environmentalists and community experts — who will take decisions on individual projects. This will include new "open floor" debates where residents can have their say rather than having to go before a court-room style inquiry hearing.
• A new legal requirement on developers to consult with the public and key parties such as environmental groups and heritage experts.

However, only portions of the White Paper will affect the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Welsh Assembly Government has considerable autonomy as far as planning issues are concerned. Thus the sections of proposed reforms that apply to:

• planning for sustainability, including energy and land use supply, town centre planning, economic development and the national planning policy framework
• strengthening local authorities' role in "place-making" via the local development framework, sustainability appraisal, infrastructure planning and planning performance
• and measures to streamline the planning application system as it affects, for instance, householder application

will not be implemented in Wales.

Wales will, however, be affected by the plan to create an independent planning commission to scrutinise major infrastructure developments and London civil servants are said to be liaising with Cardiff about their implications. Planning for national infrastructure is not wholly devolved and their are different levels of autonomy in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Air Transport policy remains with London, but energy provision is more complex. There will need to be negotiations with the devolved governments to produce and implement a UK/GB-wide energy policy. Planning decisions on airports will remain devolved in all three countries. Energy decisions will be devolved in Scotland and Ireland but not Wales. Decisions on energy projects and reservoirs in Wales are intended to be devolved to the new planning commission within the context of GB or UK wide policy but there are proposals to increase the role WAG will have in energy consents. This quotation from the White Paper is interesting and suggests that Welsh government and Westminster were not wholly aligned prior to the recent elections.

While the Government believes it is vital for the UK’s energy strategy that the commission should have such decision making powers, we also recognise that the new regime should take full account of the views both of Welsh Assembly Government Ministers and of appropriate Welsh experts. The Government proposes to increase the role the Welsh Assembly Government will exercise in large energy consents:
a) first, Welsh ministers would be statutory consultees in the formulation of the national policy statement;
b) second, Welsh ministers would be prominent amongst those that developers would consult on their plans before applying consent to the infrastructure planning commission, and amongst those that the commission would consult during its consideration of any scheme in Wales, including at the decision making stages; and
c) third, two or three commissioners of the infrastructure planning commission would be appointed on the advice of Welsh ministers, and one of those commissioners would be a member of the panel drawn to consider and decide an application for consent for an infrastructure project in
Wales.
Welsh ministers have made clear that they will continue to pursue the devolution of energy consents over 50MW. The policy set out in this White Paper is aimed at ensuring a unified and coherent approach to large energy consents across England and Wales.

White Paper, 166

There will also need to be proper arrangements for cross-border projects and these are also subject to discussion.

Until a new government is formed in Cardiff it is difficult to second-guess the politicians and their advisers. However, an initial response would be to express concern at any measure which erodes local democratic input into major planning decisions and/or makes the representation of community views more difficult. Despite the honeyed words about greater access and open debate the proposals relating to major public projects need to be considered very carefully indeed.

Matthew Griffiths

22 May 2007