Advice to Eon/Horizon

Enquiry

• From: Eon/Horizon
• Date advice given: 22 December 2010
• Enquiry type: Phone

Enquirer asked what the future timescales may be in relation to the decision making stage of the process, taking into account the intentions of the Localism Bill.

Advice given

In summary, the Localism Bill (the Bill) does not seek to amend the relevant timescales for examinations, recommendations and decisions of applications for development consent set out in the Planning Act 2008 (the 2008 Act).

The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC), and in due course the proposed Major Infrastructure Planning Unit, has six months in which to examine an application for development consent, and three months to submit a report to the relevant Secretary of State. In all cases the deadline for submission of the report to the Secretary of State is 3 months from the day after the completion of an examination. This means that even if the examination of an application is finished early the 3 month time limit still applies from that earlier finish. Following submission of the report, the Secretary of State then has three months in which to determine an application. In other words, decisions will generally be taken within 12 months of commencement of an application’s examination and that timetable, set out in the 2008 Act, remains unchanged.

One of the proposed changes to the 2008 Act set out in the Bill is that the Secretary of State would, if these provisions come into force, have to make a statement to Parliament if a deadline for examining or determining an application is extended (sections 98 and 107 of the 2008 Act as amended by paragraphs 44 and 52 of Schedule 13 of the Bill). If the relevant Bill provisions become statute and are brought into force they would also, amongst other matters, provide that the decision-maker in all cases would be the Secretary of State (s.103 of the 2008 Act as amended by paragraph 48 of Schedule 13 of the Bill), and abolish the IPC (clause 107 of the Bill).

The clauses in the Bill will be subject to the Parliamentary process, including scrutiny by Committee, and may therefore change before the provisions become statute. The 2008 Act will only change (if at all) when the Bill provisions become statute and are brought into force by secondary legislation, which is not expected to be until April 2012.

The Government has recently stated that it will consider whether it would be possible to speed up the 12 month timetable while ensuring that the regime remains as predictable and efficient as possible (paragraph 22 of the 'Major Infrastructure Planning Reform - Work Plan' published by DCLG, in December 2010).