Clause 49
Planning Bill
1:45 pm
John Healey (Minister of State (Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Wentworth, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman and I share a concern to see good, thorough consultation as part of this stage of the process of dealing with applications. If I clarify how the clause works, perhaps he might be reassured.
The reference to a “local authority consultee” in subsection (4) would not prevent other parties from submitting representations about how adequate the consultation had been or mean that the commission could ignore them. Indeed, if someone were to write to the commission raising concerns about how adequate the consultation had been, it would be obliged by the basic principles of administrative law to take that into account in coming to a decision.
The wording in clause 49 simply means that representations from the relevant local authorities about how well the promoter has consulted the local community should be given particular attention by the IPC for two reasons. First, as my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Attercliffe pointed out, local authorities have a unique knowledge about their area, a democratic mandate and experience of how best to ensure that local people are involved and that their views are taken into account. We want to ensure that that special experience and knowledge is captured and made available to the IPC.
Secondly, the Bill therefore puts a specific duty on promoters to consult the relevant local authorities when they are working out how to consult the local community that may be affected by their proposals. Local authorities will have been involved in the promoter’s planning of the pre-application consultation from an early stage. They will know what the promoter committed to doing during that process and will be in a strong position to pass judgment and comment on how effective the consultation has been.
For those reasons, it is appropriate that the IPC has regard to the local authority’s views, as proposed in the clause as drafted.