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Advice to RWE npower

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Enquiry

From
RWE npower
Date advice given
26 October 2011
Enquiry type
Email

On the 3rd of October, I raised a question regarding the actual process for the transfer of benefit. You advised me to contact DECC regarding this issue and DECC have now responded that they expect the IPC to respond.

Can you please now treat this as a priority as this matter is important to the drafting of the DCO and our legal advisors are waiting for a response.

Advice given

Just to confirm what we briefly talked about at last Thursday's meeting regarding the above: Post-decision granting of consent to transfer of benefit of an order is a matter for the DCO decision maker, ie the Secretary of State (SoS) once the Localism Bill has come into force. There is no formal procedure for obtaining the consent of the SoS to the transfer of the benefit of the order or any of its provisions once an order has been granted.

We have been advised by DECC that developers with the benefit of a development consent order which provides for a transfer will need to write a letter to DECC requesting consent. DECC will then consider this as appropriate and write back accordingly.

It is suggested that applicants who do not themselves intend to develop a project, or who anticipate selling their interest on, make this clear during the examination process (or ideally earlier). One of the ancillary matters listed in schedule 5 of the Planning Act 2008 refers to the transfer of property, rights, liabilities or functions. Applicants could therefore give some indication in their application on what their ultimate plans are.