Government publishes Planning Reform Bill
December 3, 2007
The Government has published its Planning Reform Bill for England and Wales, which is designed to implement key recommendations of the Eddington and Barker reports in order to speed up the planning process and thus the development of major infrastructure projects in Britain. The aim is to facilitate economic and housing growth.
The Bill will implement proposals in the May 2007 Planning White Paper to streamline and improve the planning regime, including introducing a single consents regime for major infrastructure projects, establishing an Independent Infrastructure Planning Commission, and further measures to improve the town and country planning system. However, the publication of the Bill was met with criticism from a variety of sources.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said, rather than speeding up the planning process, that "the Planning bill could fast track environmental harm".
The RSPB claims that the Bill’s current provisions will mean "developers will be allowed to gloss over environmental concerns" and that the Bill "promises only weak guarantees of sustainability, which means the new commission responsible for major development decisions could push through projects that cause environmental harm".
In a similar vein, Liberal Democrat Local Government Spokesperson, Tom Brake MP said, "There’s a real risk that this Bill, in its search for faster planning decisions, will allow local residents’ concerns to be bulldozed out of the way. We need to guard against a Planning Commission whose decisions will be less democratic, less transparent and less representative of local communities’ views."
The environment campaign group Friends of the Earth (FoE) was even more critical of the Bill, with FoE Planning Advisor, Naomi Luhde-Thompson commenting, "The Planning Bill will not tackle climate change.... It will fast track roads, airports and incinerators ― substantially adding to the UK’s carbon footprint."
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