New clause 26 - Pre-application consultation
Planning and Compulsory Purchase (Re-committed) Bill
4:45 pm
Sir Sydney Chapman (Chipping Barnet, Conservative)
Where there is a significant application—if I may use that term—rather than a major application, the Secretary of State would, perhaps, although not as a matter of course, be likely to call it in so that he could determine it or have a public inquiry as necessary, rather than let it go through the normal, conventional process. I accept that an application can go through that process and the Secretary of State can call it in at any time. However, what the hon. Gentleman wants is brought about in practice by the Secretary of State's ability to call in the application. The hon. Gentleman nods in assent. He will be able to put me right.
Secondly—I accept that this point is germane only to the Greater London area—under the Act of Parliament that set up the office of Mayor of London, the Greater London Authority and the Greater London Assembly, certain significant applications have to be referred to the Mayor, although there are smaller applications relating to housing estates or the green belt. The Mayor has the power to authorise the local planning authority not to accept or prove the application—to say that the local planning authority should reject it. I have always thought that unnecessary, because if that course prevailed on an application and the Mayor required the local planning authority to reject it, the applicant would still have the right to go to the Secretary of State. That duplicates the planning system. We are here to speed it up within the bounds of fairness.
I understand where the hon. Gentleman is coming from and where he wants to get to, but is his new clause absolutely necessary? I would have thought that the existing town and country planning laws and regulations cover the matter by allowing the Secretary of State to call in an application.