Clause 30
Planning Bill
4:30 pm
Bob Neill (Shadow Minister, Communities and Local Government; Bromley and Chislehurst, Conservative)
There is one question on which I would like the Minister to be a little more specific. Does he anticipate circumstances in which—perhaps he will give a practical example—an application has commenced under the Town and Country Planning Acts regime, but it fits the nationally significant infrastructure projects criteria and the power of direction will have to be used? He said that clause 29 means that anything that comes within the national infrastructure projects criteria will have to be commenced under that regime. Perhaps it is my fault, but I am struggling to understand the circumstances in which a project might commence outside the regime but could subsequently be brought under it. Is it a question of size thresholds? We are concerned that the measure has the potential for mission creep as far as the IPC is concerned. Will the Minister explain a little more about the rationale behind the measure?