Aisling Byrne is Senior Public Affairs Officer at the RTPI
This week, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill will have its Second Reading in the House of Lords, just over three months after first entering Parliament. It’s been no secret that Government has been wanting to get this Bill through Parliament quickly, to get on and “build, build, build” as Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner MP, said at UKREiiF last month.
The Lords presents an opportunity for further scrutiny of the Bill, with all Peers getting the opportunity to table their own amendments at Committee stage and further examine its contents line by line. We’ve been reaching out and working with Peers, supporting them in understanding RTPI’s overall response to the Bill and promoting our proposed new clauses through, outlined on our Planning Reform Hub.
As the planning reform agenda continues at pace, we’ve been reflecting on how our key asks have been weaved through recent policy and legislative developments.
During the House of Commons Committee and Report Stage of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, noticeably only Government-tabled new clauses and amendments were added onto the Bill. One of these new clauses will allow local planning authorities to add a surcharge to planning fees to cover the cost of engaging statutory consultees. At the RTPI, we’ve been raising the issue of funding and resourcing for statutory consultees throughout our engagement on the Bill and see this as a positive step in recognising that appropriate attention needs to be paid to their capacity. But we know there’s more to come in this space, with the Government expected to soon be consulting on reforms to the statutory consultee system. As we anticipate this consultation, we’re keeping in mind that the new clause will likely be implemented in a context where the size and scope of the statutory consultee system will differ to what we currently work with.
Since mandatory training for Planning Committee members first appeared within the Bill, we have been calling for a test for members to be included at the end of their training. Making the case in initial consultation responses, Parliamentary briefings on the Bill and in our written evidence to the Bill Committee, we are pleased to see our call has now been picked up as an option in the Government’s recent Reform of planning committees: technical consultation.
The technical consultation also presents proposals for a new national scheme of delegation in England, naming Chief Planning Officers as a key role in decision-making on delegation alongside Planning Committee conveners. We believe this reference to Chief Planning Officers strengthens our call for the role to be made statutory in every Local Planning Authority, ensuring competency and accountability are at the heart of decision-making.
In wider policy announcements, we’ve seen positive steps towards addressing our ask around a National Spatial Framework for England. The 10-Year Infrastructure Strategy recognises the need to produce national spatial priorities, encourage joint working and ensure Strategic Development Strategies (SDSs) work in harmony at a regional and national level – all points which the RTPI have continually been raising. We maintain that a statutory provision of a National Spatial Framework is the best way to ensure that this happens, and so will continue to champion our proposals for a new clause on a National Spatial Framework to be added into the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
Planning reform developments and updates are expected to continue over the summer and into the autumn, and we look forward to continuing to work with Peers and seeing how this next phase of legislative scrutiny unfolds.
