Planning Act 2008
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The Planning Act 2008 is an Act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...
intended to speed up the process for approving major new infrastructure projects such as airports, roads, harbours, energy facilities such as nuclear power and waste facilities. Along with the Climate Change Bill and the Energy Bill this bill was considered by the Brown administration to be one of the "three legislative pillars of the Government's strategy to secure long-term prosperity and quality of life for all". The Infrastructure Planning Commission has since been abolished and replaced with the Planning Inspectorate as of 31 March 2012.


Key aims

* A new body, the Infrastructure Planning Commission would make the decisions * These decisions would be based on new national policy statements * Hearings and the decision-making process would be timetabled * The new regime would be used for major energy projects * The Secretary of State would not be able to have the final say on major infrastructure decisions * A new Community Infrastructure Levy on developments would finance infrastructure (money would be raised from developers to pay for the facilities needed as a consequence of new developments, such as schools, hospitals and sewage plants). * Planning appeals in relation to minor developments would be heard by a panel of local councillors and not by a planning inspector.


Positions


Political parties


Labour

Labour introduced the Bill that became the Planning Act, although some 60 Labour members signed a Commons Motion opposing plans to set up an independent commission in May 2008.


Conservative

The Conservatives were opposed to the Infrastructure Planning Commission while in opposition with parts of the act amended by the Coalition Government via the
Localism Act 2011 The Localism Act 2011 (c. 20) is an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of Parliament that changes the powers of local government in England. The aim of the act is to facilitate the devolution of decision-making powers from central gov ...
. Prime Minister
David Cameron David William Donald Cameron (born 9 October 1966) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2016 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2005 to 2016. He previously served as Leader o ...
said before the 2010 election that "This quango is going to be almost entirely divorced from the processes of democracy. That is wrong. People need a planning system in which they feel they have a say – both at national and local level. That is why this Bill is getting such widespread opposition from so many different quarters" The coalition government have, however, retained the concept of National Policy Statements, the authorisation regime and the Community Infrastructure Levy


Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats were also opposed the Infrastructure Planning Commission. Previously opposed to nuclear power, they are also granted the ability to vote against the nuclear power National Policy Statement when it comes before Parliament.


Environmental groups

Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth International (FoEI) is an international network of environmental organizations in 73 countries. The organization was founded in 1969 in San Francisco by David Brower, Donald Aitken and Gary Soucie after Brower's split with ...
say that the government must make
Climate Change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...
a central consideration in the decision-making process. In November 2007 major environmental groups described the Planning Bill as a 'Developer's charter' and the head of planning at the
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expressed concern saying that although the minister claimed that the bill will help protect the environment that it was more likely to aid developers trying to push through major schemes with scant regard to wildlife and the countryside and could "fast track environmental harm".


Trade unions and businesses

John Cridland, then Deputy Director-General of the
Confederation of British Industry The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is a UK business organisation, which in total claims to speak for 190,000 businesses, this is made up of around 1,500 direct members and 188,500 non-members. The non members are represented through the 1 ...
supported the bill saying that it was in the national interest and would facilitate the building of infrastructure that will help Britain protect its energy security, build renewable power sources to cut carbon, and invest for the future".


Nationally significant infrastructure projects

The Planning Act 2008 introduced a number of changes towards seeking development consent nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) with the aim to overhaul the planning process in order to save costs and increase efficiency. Among these changes included the formation of the Infrastructure Planning Commission which served as an independent examining body for all applications relating to major infrastructure projects on 1 October 2009. The IPC has since been abolished and replaced by the Planning Inspectorate on 31 March 2012. The responsibilities of the IPC were transferred to the National Infrastructure Directorate of the Planning Inspectorate. The Planning Act 2008 also addressed the issue of having to receive several different regimes under Part 4 of the Planning Act 2008. Now NSIP projects would only require a Development Consent Order (DCO) therefore the requirement of seeking approval under several different consent regimes was no longer necessary. This front-loaded approach to unifying the consents regime was intended to make the process for applying for planning consent faster and more efficient. National Policy Statements were introduced under Part 5 of the Planning Act 2008. The Planning Act requires that all applications which sought development consent would have to follow the guidelines for National Policy Statements. The National Policy Statements set out the need for development and other policy deliberations. The sustainability of the policy has to be assessed beforehand to ensure compliance with environmental sustainability standards. The National Policy Statements were intended to make the outcome more certain by following guidelines. This had clear benefits for applicants who invested in a wealth of resources in order to bring development consent into fruition and in financial matters. This new system was intended to streamline the process for applying for development consent through procedural amendments to the planning regime.


The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)

The
Infrastructure Planning Commission The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) was a non-departmental public body responsible for the examining and in certain circumstances the decision making body for proposed nationally significant infrastructure projects in England and Wales. Cre ...
was formed on 1 October 2009 with a brief to oversee planning applications for major infrastructure projects (also known as
nationally significant infrastructure project Nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIP) are major infrastructure developments in England and Wales that bypass normal local planning requirements. These include proposals for power plants, large renewable energy projects, new airp ...
s) such as power stations, roads, railways and airports claiming to cut the time to make a decision from seven years to less than a year and saving the taxpayer £300 million per year. Applications for large energy and transport projects had to be made to the IPC from 1 March 2010, but by December 2010 only two applications had in fact been made, one of which the IPC refused to accept as inadequately prepared. Despite claims that the general public would be cut out of the authorisation process, over 1,000 representations were made on the application that the IPC accepted.


Community Infrastructure Levy

The
Community Infrastructure Levy Planning gains (or planning obligations) are ways that local authorities in the United Kingdom can secure additional public benefits from developers, during the granting of planning permission. Planning gains seek to capture some of the uplift in l ...
is a form of
planning gain Planning gains (or planning obligations) are ways that local authorities in the United Kingdom can secure additional public benefits from developers, during the granting of planning permission. Planning gains seek to capture some of the uplift in l ...
tax, where a proportion of the increase in value on land as a result of planning permission is used to finance the supporting infrastructure, such as schools and will 'unlock housing growth'


Amendments


Localism Act 2011

The coalition government introduced the
Localism Act 2011 The Localism Act 2011 (c. 20) is an Acts of Parliament in the United Kingdom, Act of Parliament that changes the powers of local government in England. The aim of the act is to facilitate the devolution of decision-making powers from central gov ...
, that made changes to the regime under the Planning Act 2008. The Localism Act replaced the
Infrastructure Planning Commission The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) was a non-departmental public body responsible for the examining and in certain circumstances the decision making body for proposed nationally significant infrastructure projects in England and Wales. Cre ...
with the
Planning Inspectorate The Planning Inspectorate for England (sometimes referred to as PINS) is an executive agency of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities of the United Kingdom Government with responsibility for making decisions and providing reco ...
, and returned overall decision-making to the Secretary of State who responds based on the recommendation of the Planning Inspectorate. The Localism Act also allows the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
to be able to veto National Policy Statements, and makes other changes to the Planning Act regime. Previously, the Infrastructure Planning Commission were responsible for planning approval related to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects, and were not directly accountable to the public. Section 128(1) of the
Localism Act The Localism Act 2011 (c. 20) is an Act of Parliament that changes the powers of local government in England. The aim of the act is to facilitate the devolution of decision-making powers from central government control to individuals and commun ...
abolishes the aforementioned Infrastructure Planning Commission handing over the responsibility for decisions related to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects towards Government Ministers. Section 130(3) of the ActLocalism Act 2011 S130(3). ensures that national policy statements which are used to guide planning approval for NSIP's can be voted for by the parliament.


The Infrastructure Planning (Radioactive Waste Geological Disposal Facilities) Order 2015

Amends sections 14 and appends section 30A to the Planning Act 2008. It sets out rules for disposal of radioactive waste, and surveying the potential sites.


References


External links


Royal Town Planning Institute: Planning Bill
{{Energy in the United Kingdom, govreg Environmental law in the United Kingdom United Kingdom industrial planning policy United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2008 United Kingdom planning law 2008 in British law 2008 in the environment