Clause 50
Planning Bill
2:00 pm
John Healey (Minister of State (Local Government), Department for Communities and Local Government; Wentworth, Labour)
We are breaking some interesting political ground this afternoon. The Tories are triangulating and trying to stake out common middle ground, and the Liberal Democrats are being consistent.
I agree with that it is important that people who are affected by an application have suitable and sufficient time to formulate any representation that they want to make to the IPC. As things stand, I believe that 28 days is the appropriate length of time for interested parties to do that. I will try to explain why.
First, let us not forget that, by the time an interested party is formally notified of an application, they are likely to know a great deal about the proposals in the application. It is highly unlikely that it will be the first that they have heard about it, or that it will be the first time that they turn their mind to it. Instead, the application process will have been preceded by an extensive period of consultation and discussion at the pre-application stage, which we considered in part 5. By the time an application is submitted, people who may be affected will be well aware of any problems that they could have with it. In that context, 28 days is an appropriate length of time for them to respond. Of course, the period can be longer if the applicant thinks it necessary.
As the hon. Gentleman said, amendments Nos. 264 to 266 would put some minimum standards for publicising an application in the Bill. I ask him to bear it in mind that the Bill already allows for the Secretary of State to make more detailed regulations about how publicity should be carried out. In particular, subsection (7) gives the Secretary of State powers to prescribe minimum standards for publicity and notification.
Amendment No. 266 would impose a deadline of at least 28 days, by which representations relating to an application must be submitted. That would apply to those who are not notified directly by the applicant, but who respond to the publicity. Regulations are better placed to deal with the issue in a more detailed way, and they will do so. We have deliberately allowed for flexibility in the regulations under subsection (8) so that the deadlines by which people must make their representations take account of different circumstances. I give the hon. Gentleman the reassurance that we have no intention of using that flexibility to set a deadline of fewer than 28 days.