Further Welsh devolution and planning divergence proposed

This entry reports on a couple of infrastructure planning developments in Wales.

Background

The Planning Act 2008 regime partly applies in Wales, but is restricted in two main ways: it only applies to some types of nationally significant infrastructure project (i.e. energy projects and ports) and any (what would have been) 'associated development' cannot be included in an application but must be permitted by the local authority separately.

Two recent things have happened that could affect this. First, there is a draft Planning (Wales) Bill on which consultation has just closed and secondly the so-called Silk Commission on further devolution in Wales has just reported with some planning-related recommendations.

They are worth reading about even if you have nothing to do with Wales, since they contain some interesting ideas and represent a further evolutionary step in the planning and authorisation of large projects.

Planning Bill

The draft Planning (Wales) Bill can be found here. This is my analysis of its main provisions.

• A National Development Framework is to be created for Wales, i.e. a spatial plan for the whole country;
• Strategic plans for areas bigger than single local authorities and smaller than the whole country can be created;
• Local plans continue but Welsh Ministers can force two or more authorities to produce a joint one;
• *Compulsory pre-application consultation can be required for certain types of development (yet to be specified);
• *Applications for Developments of National Significance (DNSs) to be made directly to Welsh Ministers (types specified on pages 113-115 of the consultation document);
• There is also a 'special measures'-type provision where certain applications to certain authorities can also be made directly to Welsh Ministers;
• *For DNSs, relevant local authorities must submit a local impact report (note: compulsory);
• For certain planning permissions, the developer must tell the local planning authority when they start implementing them;
• There are measures to speed up appeals, such as submitting statements of case with the appeal, and removing the automatic right to an inquiry.

The ones with an asterisk above appear to be variations on measures in the Planning Act 2008 regime. The idea of compulsory local impact reports is an interesting one, for example.

DNSs are all infrastructure projects. Where the Planning Act 2008 does not apply to Wales the thresholds are the same as in that Act, where it does, the thresholds are lower.  The next development may change that ...

Silk Commission

The Commission on Devolution in Wales was established in 2011 and produced its report on Monday (presumably because St David's Day was a Saturday). It is headed by Paul Silk, who sadly isn't a barrister but a civil servant.

The report can be found here. The main proposal of interest to Planning Act junkies is that the commission proposes raising the threshold for electricity generation projects to be considered nationally significant infrastructure projects (NSIPs) in Wales from 50MW onshore and 100MW offshore to 350MW across the board, but also that associated development be part of the application to whomever it is made (recommendations R.15a and c). Recommendation R.15b is that the Welsh Government is consulted on NSIPs in Wales by the UK Government and that Welsh planning policies are taken into account.

The report also recommends the devolution of port development (recommendation R.12a), but doesn't propose interference with the NSIP threshold, i.e. this will only apply to developments currently below the NSIP threshold.

Powers over water and sewerage should become devolved (R.16a and b), but there is no mention of the NSIP thresholds.

Those are the recommendations affecting infrastructure, although I note that the National Assembly is to be allowed to change its name to the Welsh Parliament (R.53).

The Welsh Government is likely to agree to the proposals, and it will be up to the UK governmment to decide how much it agrees too.

The Planning (Wales) Bill will no doubt be amended as a result of the consultation on it, and the Welsh Government expects it to become law by the end of this year.