Clause 14
Planning Bill
12:15 pm
Jim Fitzpatrick (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Department for Transport; Poplar and Canning Town, Labour)
The amendments are minor changes, mainly to ensure that a project will be considered nationally significant if it “is expected to” exceed a particular threshold, rather than “will”, as stated in the Bill. The changes are being made because it will not always be possible to say with certainty what the capacity will be at the point of making an application for development consent. For instance, if the capacity of an overhead electric line is expected to carry 20 kV, it is right that it falls to the IPC for consideration, even if, on completion of the project, the average operating capacity falls below that. We must operate on the principle of the level at which a facility is expected to operate to service the national need. The amendments will ensure that there is no unnecessary legal challenge over a decision when the capacity of a facility does not always meet the required threshold.