Clause 1 - Regional Spatial Strategy
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
10:00 am
Mr Tony McNulty (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Harrow East, Labour)
If we were operating in a vacuum, that would be an entirely fair point, but we are not. The RPGs are rooted solidly in the broader context of the sustainability framework in which existing environmental assessments have been made. The hon. Member for Chipping Barnet referred to speed governing our thoughts on the Bill. We will not reach a stage during the next 18 months at which every single RPG has turned completely into an RSS. We are about to move on to the second and subsequent stages of RSS revision and development. Would that such speed could prevail.
By the time that we have reached a complete evolution from RPG to RSS, and before we arrive at any notion of the initial revision of the RSSs, the directive and the means by which the Government will incorporate it into planning law will be long established. That will be the most appropriate time to decide where to go with the SEA process.