Clause 94 - Consents for generating stations offshore
Energy Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Mr Bob Blizzard (Waveney, Labour)
New paragraph (7A)(7) of schedule 8 to the 1989 Act deals with an inquiry where a planning authority makes an exception. New sub-paragraph (7) limits the inquiry to land within the area of the authority by which the objection has been made, unless the Secretary of State directs otherwise. Why is that provision necessary? If a planning authority makes an objection to a development outside the land
for which the authority is responsible, in what circumstances would my hon. Friend the Minister allow an inquiry? If we allow it, is there not a danger of becoming bogged down in ''inquiryism''?
This country has a serious problem with the time it takes us to make progress on major infrastructure projects, be they in energy or transport. Ours is a democratic society and we are proud of our model of transparent governance in which everyone has a say, but we must be mindful of our rate of progress. We might find out that we simply cannot move around readily enough to meet our economic needs, or that we do not have sufficient generating power to keep the lights on, because it takes us too long to build the infrastructure. I do not want to sweep aside the proper processes, but we must ensure that they are less slow.
Under new sub-paragraph (9), if the Secretary of State wants to allow an inquiry regarding a piece of land outside the area of the planning authority, two separate inquiries may be required: one on the land that falls within the area of the planning authority, and one on the land that falls outside it. If the Secretary of State were minded to go down that road, why would we need two separate inquiries? Is that not a recipe for confusion? Could we not at least roll up the inquiries into one, so that undue time is not spent on process and we achieve our aims?