New clause 26 - Pre-application consultation
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
5:15 pm
Mr Keith Hill (Minister of State (Housing and Planning), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Streatham, Labour)
I am certain that those who wish to make representations on the RSS will have ample opportunity to do so. I hope that that reassures the hon. Gentleman and his constituents in the Cotswolds.
I was trying to describe the advantages of greater involvement by local people in the planning process, which is central to our purpose and, I rather think, the intentions of the hon. Member for Ludlow. Such involvement will serve the purpose of educating the participants not only about the needs of their own communities in a wider sense, but about those of the business sector. It will also serve to engage people in local government, which is an extremely valuable aspect of the process as well. Involvement is also likely to assist in promoting social cohesion by encouraging links within communities and giving local residents a stake in decision making.
Again, to allude to an observation that the hon. Gentleman made, we want to encourage developers to work with communities on proposals for developments before they submit their applications for planning permission. That benefits both developers and local communities, since any areas of potential conflict can be dealt with before the proposals are finalised. Where an application for a proposed development has been discussed with the community in advance, we expect it to have a much easier passage during the formal planning process.
The Bill contains a number of proposals that should help to take that objective forward. For example, the planning checklist, which is proposed in the planning Green Paper, provides a mechanism that will enable developers to focus on pre-application consultation. The planning checklist was widely welcomed, and clause 41 will enable local planning authorities to issue standard checklist forms.
There are statutory requirements for publicity on planning applications. Arrangements for publicising applications for planning permission, listed building consent, and conservation area consent are not consistent, however. In the July 2002 policy paper, we said that we would standardise application and publicity under the different consent regimes. We therefore intend to consult later this year on possible changes in publicity requirements to bring the three regimes into line, and to consider whether any simplification is appropriate. Clearer publicity arrangements will obviously facilitate more effective involvement.
The hon. Member for Chipping Barnet was absolutely right in his remarks about major applications. Clause 43 deals with major infrastructure projects. As the hon. Member for Cotswold pointed out, the amendment also refers to major applications. The new major infrastructure
project inquiry rules will continue the Government's policy aim of encouraging community involvement in the planning process. The intention is to encourage most involvements as soon as projects have been called in, to allow pre-inquiry work to concentrate on identifying the relevant issues and clarifying which of them might be resolved before inquiry.
We want communities to engage with the planning process from the beginning. In any large-scale development, it is in the interests of both developer and community to engage with each other at an early stage, including through local meetings. Any guidance that the Government produce on major infrastructure projects will highlight the value of such communications.