Aisling Byrne is a Senior Public Affairs Officer at the RTPI.
Parliament is in recess for the Easter break, but with the next stage of the passage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill due to begin in just over a week, the RTPI hasn’t slowed down on our work briefing around the Bill.
The Bill will enter the Committee stage in the House of Commons on 24 April. At this stage, a detailed examination of the Bill will take place by a selected Bill Committee. The seventeen Committee members reflect the party balance in the Commons, with MPs from the three main parties and the Green Party. It features housing and planning spokespeople from across the House, ministerial representation from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and backbench MPs who spoke in the Second Reading debate.
The Committee will start its examination by hearing oral evidence from experts and stakeholders from outside Parliament. The RTPI is actively engaged with this part of the process, having already submitted our written evidence to the Committee earlier this month, our Chief Executive, Dr Victoria Hills, will give oral evidence to the Committee on the opening day of proceedings.]
After receiving oral evidence, the Committee will then examine the Bill clause by clause. Amendments and new clauses can be proposed throughout the Committee stage and will be selected for discussion by the chairman of the Committee. Only members of the Committee will be able to vote on amendments and new clauses at this stage.
Throughout the Easter recess, the RTPI has been preparing our briefings on our proposed new clauses for:
- An outline of the ‘purpose of planning’
- Statutory Chief Planning Officers
- Mandatory virtual broadcasting of planning committees
- Provisions for a National Spatial Framework
We will be detailing our proposed new clauses, overall analysis of the Bill, and our call for sufficient resourcing to deliver ambitions when appearing in front of the Public Bill Committee on 24 April.
Our unprecedented amount of engagement on the Bill will continue throughout the coming weeks, as we give further evidence to the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee on 29 April on our assessment and response to the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
As the Bill is debated throughout Committee stage, we will be working with MPs to table our proposed new clauses, as well as keeping an eye on other amendments proposed that will be of interest to our members.
As the Planning and Infrastructure Bill is a Government Bill, the Committee must stick to its allocated conclusion date and will finish proceedings by 22 May at the latest. At this point the amended Bill will move into Report stage, an opportunity for the whole House to consider and debate what has been done to the Bill at Committee stage and where all MPs can propose amendments again.
Keep up to date throughout the passage of the Bill with all of our Planning Reform 2025 Hub resources, as well as clips of our Committee appearances on our LinkedIn.
