{"id":2219,"date":"2010-12-22T13:53:13","date_gmt":"2010-12-22T13:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ihbconline.co.uk\/newsachive\/?p=2219"},"modified":"2011-01-14T18:23:29","modified_gmt":"2011-01-14T18:23:29","slug":"clg-asks-us-how-to-cut-planning-papers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=2219","title":{"rendered":"CLG asks us how to cut planning papers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organisations and individuals are invited to offer views on priorities and policies that should be included in a new slimlined planning framework – the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – before a draft is produced and available for formal consultation.
\n<\/span>
\nDecentralisation Minister Greg Clark\u00a0is inviting organisations and individuals to offer their views to the Department on what priorities and policies the Government might adopt to produce the shorter, more decentralised and less bureaucratic national planning policy framework. Planning professionals, local authorities, community groups and members of the public will have an opportunity to shape the new framework.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Clark is announcing an end to the centralist approach to planning with an ambitious plan designed to consolidate dozens of existing policy statements, circulars and guidance documents into a single national planning policy framework.<\/p>\n

The new framework will:<\/p>\n

\u00b7 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0hand power back to local communities to decide what is right for them – instead of imposing excessive rigid rules from the centre
\n\u00b7 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0be more user-friendly and accessible, so that it is easier for members of the public to have a meaningful say in planning decisions
\n\u00b7 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0make sure that planning is used as a mechanism for delivering Government objectives only where it is relevant, proportionate and effective to do so
\n\u00b7 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0establish a presumption in favour of sustainable development.
\n<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n


\nMr Clark said: “We have over 1000 pages of policy and guidance that have made the planning system unclear and burdensome. This creates vast amounts of paperwork and bureaucracy that burdens developers and limits the power of local people to shape their neighbourhoods around their vision. The new framework will integrate our current suite of policy statements and guidance into a single concise document. It will focus on the Government’s key priorities for planning and help deliver a more effective, decentralised system.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Clark has also set out a Work Plan on major infrastructure planning reform to deliver nationally important new infrastructure that will drive economic growth. This includes the steps to be taken to abolish the\u00a0Infrastructure Planning Commission\u00a0and drive major planning reform.<\/p>\n

Securing investment in new infrastructure is essential to delivering growth over the coming decades. There is expected to be \u00a3200 billion of private and\u00a0public sector investment\u00a0in infrastructure over the next five years.<\/p>\n

Planning decisions on infrastructure of this scale are so important that the Government believes it is right that these decisions should be taken by democratically elected representatives and not by the Infrastructure Planning Commission, an unelected quango.
\nA new Major Infrastructure Planning Unit, established within the\u00a0Planning Inspectorate, will take over the IPC’s responsibilities once it is abolished. The new Unit will provide advice to Ministers who will take the decisions on nationally important infrastructure projects and grant permissions.<\/p>\n

The Government\u00a0has committed to making decisions at least as quickly as the twelve months allowed under the major infrastructure planning regime and is considering whether we can reduce the timeframe further.<\/p>\n

Mr Clark also confirmed the Government’s commitment to the delivery of critically important National Policy Statements for new infrastructure. \u00a0These will set out the Government’s policy on major infrastructure projects such as ports or power stations.<\/p>\n

Mr Clark added: “Securing investment in new infrastructure is essential to help rebuild the UK economy and provide new jobs. \u00a0We cannot expect to meet the needs of tomorrow with yesterday’s infrastructure and reform of the planning system is vital to securing essential investment and achieving economic growth.”<\/p>\n

National Planning Policy Framework
\n<\/span>1. The National Planning Policy Framework will streamline the national planning policies set out inPlanning Policy Guidance notes,\u00a0Planning Policy Statements, Minerals Policy Statements and Minerals Policy Guidance notes, plus a number of related Circulars. There are around 40 such documents.<\/p>\n

2. The guidance notes and statements cover various planning aspects of\u00a0climate change, housing, renewable energy, flood risk,\u00a0Green Belt\u00a0and waste, and procedural advice such as how to compile development plans.<\/p>\n

3. The Government will continue to maintain Green Belt protection, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Parks, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other environmental designations which protect the character of our country’s landscape, stop unsustainable urban sprawl and preserve wildlife.<\/p>\n

4. There are also over 100 advisory guidance notes including best practice guides. These will be cut back. Too much weight is often given to this kind of guidance, especially when many professional bodies produce high quality advisory material that is equal or of more use to users of the planning system.<\/p>\n

5. National Policy Statements, which will set out the Government’s policy on major infrastructure projects such as ports or power stations, will not be included in the Framework.<\/p>\n

6. Organisations and individuals will be invited to offer views on priorities and policies that should be included in the new slimlined framework before a draft is produced and available for formal consultation.
\n
\n<\/strong>Major Infrastructure Planning Reform Work Plan
\n<\/span>1. For the majority of schemes, decisions will be taken by the Secretary of State responsible for the policy: the\u00a0Secretary of State for Energy\u00a0and Climate Change will take decisions on major energy infrastructure and the\u00a0Secretary of State for Transport\u00a0will take decisions on major transport infrastructure.<\/p>\n

2. We envisage that applications relating to hazardous waste will be determined by the\u00a0Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and that applications relating to waste water and water supply will be determined jointly by the Secretaries of State for\u00a0Communities and Local Governmentand Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.<\/p>\n

3. Subject to\u00a0Royal Assent\u00a0of the Localism Bill and commencement of relevant legislation, the Infrastructure Planning Commission will be abolished and its functions transferred to the Secretary of State.<\/p>\n

4. The Localism Bill was introduced to\u00a0Parliament\u00a0on 13 December. Subject to parliamentary time being made available we anticipate that commencement of the relevant parts of the Act will be in\u00a0April 2012.<\/p>\n

DCMS: LINK<\/a>
\nDept of Communities –\u00a0 Planning & Building: LINK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organisations and individuals are invited to offer views on priorities and policies that should be included in a new slimlined planning framework – the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) – before a draft is produced and available for formal consultation. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2219"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2287,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2219\/revisions\/2287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}