Local authority charging for NSIP advice

Angus Walker picture-13This entry reports on a local authority setting out its rates for charging for non-statutory advice on nationally significant infrastructure projects.

Although its charging schedule is dated 1 April 2013, I have just spotted that Carmarthenshire Council in south west Wales is charging for non-statutory advice on nationally significant infrastructure projects. Google says that the document was updated last week.

he charges are not exorbitant - £25 per hour for a junior officer and £65 per hour for their head of planning, somewhat less than the £84 per hour that the Environment Agency is charging.  Nevertheless they could mount up and if a developer feels it necessary to pay them, it is another burden on the project cost. There are also potential legal fees, travel expenses and a 5% management charge on top (is it more if you pay by credit card?).

The charges do seem to stop during the period between submitting an application and it being decided, being confined to pre-application advice and advice relating to the discharge of requirements.

The only applications on the PINS website in Carmarthenshire are the consented Brechfa Forest West wind farm, the forthcoming Brechfa Forest West electricity connection and the withdrawn (or rather 'revised to be below the Planning Act threshold') Bryn Llywelyn wind farm. Tellingly, the Carmarthenshire document is in the directory '/planning/Wind Farms and Renewable Energy').

So the charging ratchet turns another click. I can see that in a matter of months it will be routine for developers to have to build into their costings a sum to be paid to statutory bodies for their active engagement.

Advice from central government remains free. The Planning Inspectorate gives advice, as does its Consent Services Unit and Defra's Major Infrastructure Environment Unit. Having said that, the last of these was supposed to set up a Major Infrastructure Habitats Group, but this still only seems to have met once, 18 months ago. I suspect that the push for habitats issues not to hold up infastructure projects has run into the sand (or mudflat) somewhat, perhaps because there haven't been any big hold-ups recently.

The issue of publication of PINS advice is part of the 2014 review of the Planning Act regime. It is likely that publication will still happen, but will be deferred until a later stage, to encourage developers and others to seek it.

The issue as I see it is not really getting advice from these bodies, professionals giving advice being an integral part of a developer's team, but engagement from them. If you want a statutory body to isolate the issues of concern to them and conclude a statement of common ground, agree protective provisions or requirements or some other agreement in short order, then this is the way to do it.

Developers will need to balance the additional cost with the greater chance of settling an objection earlier and a smoother examination. Statutory bodies will need to be careful that they, often entirely creatures of statute, are not running counter to their establishing legislation by charging developers.

For its part, the government should take care not to cut statutory bodies back so much that they feel obliged to charge developers, thus effectively transferring the costs of statutory bodies from general taxation to the very companies developing the infrastructure it so desperately needs.