2014 review proposals published to round off Infrastructure Week

This entry reports on the Government's proposals to implement the 2014 review of the Planning Act 2008, published on Friday.

Background

The original impact assessment of the Planning Bill promised a review of the Act once it had been in force for five years. With remarkable timeliness (especially given that it was still 2013), the government launched a '2014 review discussion document' on 4 December 2013, five years and eight days after the Act received royal assent, as reported in this blog entry.

A consultation then ran until 12 a.m. (shudder) on 24 January 2014. On Friday afternoon the Government revealed its proposals, having considered the responses received.

Friday's announcement

The response document is here. 53 responses were received, not least one from NIPA that I helped coordinate but had a lot of input from members for which I am grateful. The main themes that emerged were streamlining the pre-application process, improving public engagement, and simplifying the ability to make changes post-decision.

The document contains an 'implementation plan' - I think these used to be called 'road maps', with 19 things they are going to do to the Planning Act regime.

Three changes to the Planning Act itself require primary legislation. Although the response document doesn't say so, my money is on them being included in a forthcoming 'Infrastructure Bill' that is likely to be announced in the Queen's Speech on 4 June. Whichever bill it is, it will be the third one to amend the Act since it was enacted (other than minor amendments consequential on other changes), the other two being the Localism Bill and the Growth and Infrastructure Bill. We seem to have dropped 'growth' this time.

The three changes are:

• allowing two inspectors as well as one, three, four or five;
• allowing the inspector(s) to be appointed earlier (after acceptance rather than after the applicant has certified that everyone was notified about acceptance); and
• paving the way for amending the 'changes post-decision' process.

These are pretty minor changes, but the way the original Act was drafted means that they can't be done without amending it.

The bill may start in the House of Commons or the House of Lords, but whichever it is, is likely to be published very soon after 4 June. The other main proposals expected to be in the bill, which will grab all the headlines, are to remove fracking from the scope of trespass, and change the status of the Highways Agency to be more arm's length.

Other changes to the regime that will be made but don't need primary legislation are:

• near-instant publication of the application on the PINS website if the applicant agrees to this (rather than only once the application has been accepted or rejected 28 days later);
• new guidance on acceptance and on development consent orders (DCOs);
• updated guidance on changes during examinations, preliminary environmental information and on advice from the Planning Inspectorate (PINS), which will include advice on 'submission readiness', merits and examination issues, and be kept confidential for a while (not specified until when);
• a 'pre-application prospectus' as part of a more structured and transparent pre-application service from PINS, setting out what services potential applicants can take advantage of;
• more senior case officers for first-time applicants (does that mean the corollary will be true?);
• agendas for hearings more consistently at least a week in advance;
• statements of common ground able to be requested before the examination starts (shouldn't these be more honestly named 'statements of matters still at issue'?);
• creation of a working group for local authorities and statutory consultees to share best practice;
• statutory consultees able to opt out of consultation (but not through changes to the Act, so I'm a little unclear on how they'll achieve that);
• allowing more electronic communication (but not for everything, there will always be a need to provide information in hard copy);
• guidance on changes to land ownership mid-application;
• more flexibiilty on application plan scales; and
• the publication by PINS of application documents it likes (nsippy potential there).

A consultation on further whittling down of consents that require permission of the consenter to include in a development consent order is still planned for the spring as well. In general, the review will be implemented over the next year as per the implementation plan. That is not all, though, as the Government will continue to be open to helpful changes to the regime and may decide whether to consider changes to the period between applications being made and the examination starting (e.g. merging relevant and written representations) by October 2014, for implementation after the election.

All these changes look worthwhile to me, and I will be reporting on the details as they emerge.