Infrastructure Bill announced in Queen's Speech

This entry reports on yesterday's Queen's Speech.

The Queen's Speech marks the start of a roughly year-long session of Parliament, and yesterday marked the start of the 2014-15 session, the last one before the next general election.

By my calculations it is the 61st speech that Queen Elizabeth II has given (she was on maternity leave twice), so she is an old hand at it, although it was too much for 12-year-old Viscount Aithrie, who fainted shortly after Her Majesty announced that the government would pursue a nuclear non-proliferation treaty with Iran.

Cabinet Office guidance on the bills that were announced and their contents refers to 12 bills and three draft bills, although one of the 12 is the Wales Bill that was carried over from the previous session. The other bills carried over (including the HS2 Bill) are not mentioned, so that's a bit of an anomaly.

Although the SARAH (Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism) Bill has captured some headlines, blog readers will be most interested in the Infrastructure Bill, which has managed a few itself. 

Infrastructure Bill

The Infrastructure Bill, due to be published tomorrow, is to cover eight subjects, as
follows.

Roads: the Highways Agency is to be turned into a government-owned company instead of an agency of the Department for Transport. Passenger body Passenger Focus and regulator the Office of Rail Regulation will have their functions augmented to deal with roads. Presumably the name of the latter will need to change - the ORRR?

Non-native species: the bill will allow new 'species control orders' to control invasive non-native species. Presumably this is an extension of the government's curbs on immigration to non-humans.

NSIPs: three measures are heralded for the Planning Act 2008 regime for nationally significant infrastructure projects, already referred to in the government's response to the 2014 review consultation. First, the bones of a reformed process for changing development consent orders (DCOs) after they have been made will be introduced, with the flesh added through regulations over the next year. Secondly, two inspectors will be able to be appointed to examine an application as well as the current one, three, four or five. Finally, the inspectors will be able to be appointed immediately after an application has been accepted instead of currently having to wait until after the representation period.

Pretty uncontroversial tweaks, but the description on the BBC and RTPI websites, amongst others that "the process of applying for a development consent order (DCO) for building projects of national significance will be simplified and speeded up" is a bit of an exaggeration.

Planning conditions: a presumption that a planning condition has been discharged will be introduced if the local authority hasn't done anything after a certain time.

Public sector land: the bill will allow land to be transferred to the Homes and Communities Agency from other public bodies more easily and will allow the suspension of easements, etc. to continue if the land is sold on by the HCA.

Land Registry: the Land Registry, the body that records owners of and rights and restrictions on land, is to have its powers expanded.

Energy: easily the most controversial measure is to permit hydraulic fracturing under private land without the owner's consent. This measure is actually being consulted upon until 15 August, and presumably could be removed from the bill depending on the consultation results, although I wouldn't hold your breath on that one.

There is exaggeration on this on both sides: the government is characterising this as 'clarifying and streamlining' the underground access regime when it is actually changing it, and opponents are conjuring up images of jack-booted frackers marching into people's gardens when in fact the power will be limited to land below 300 metres below the surface - a Shard's worth - which is a very long way down.

I'm a bit offended that where the consultation considers using the Planning Act regime for fracking it dismisses it by saying "the process of obtaining a development consent order is extremely lengthy ... To be obliged to undertake this expensive and time-consuming process multiple times ... is not a workable option." Thanks for that.

There will also be a bit on energy regulation: charging industry for the regulator and creating a new one for the North Sea.

Housing: finally, under the heading 'new homes built to a zero carbon standard', the government is watering down the requirement for new homes to be built to a zero carbon standard. A shortfall in achieving zero carbon will be able to be offset by offsite measures, and small sites will be exempt.

So there you have it. The bill will come out tomorrow but since you've got this today I'll
probably just tweet a link to it and then blog about it on Monday.