Clause 1 - Regional Spatial Strategy
Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill
3:15 pm
Mr Tony McNulty (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister; Harrow East, Labour)
Amendments Nos. 3 and 4 would remove the Secretary of State's power to prescribe by regulations how much of the regional planning guidance for a region will become the regional spatial strategy on commencement of the Bill. There is nothing sinister about the provisions, and they have nothing to do with jackboots and diktat. They are about the transition from the regional planning guidance to the regional spatial strategy.
The power is necessary. We have made it clear that our general policy is that the current regional planning guidance should become the regional spatial strategy. The power, however clumsily worded, is necessary to ensure that any RPG that becomes the RSS—and therefore part of the development plan—is appropriate to the region.