Examination of Witnesses

Part of Growth and Infrastructure Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 4:00 pm on 20 November 2012.

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Naomi Luhde-Thompson: Thank you very much for the question. Essentially, we think that this Bill does not tackle the main issues. If it is trying to tackle the economic problems that this country is facing, it is doing so, in a way, as it looks towards growth; yet it does not look for quality of outcome. As the CBI has said, the UK’s green business is very important to the economy and has been a growth part of the economy. If you wanted to grow, for instance, green technology in the construction sector, you would put provisions within planning to encourage that kind of development and to make sure that developers who are using green technologies have an advantage over others. That is one example of how a growth and infrastructure Bill that was looking for quality of outcome and for sustainable development could perhaps address that.

The other thing about the Bill is that, in terms of environmental impact, quicker decisions do not necessarily mean better decisions. For major applications in particular, one needs to spend a bit of time in order to get quality of outcome. I do not think that speed is going to be the primary factor there. What you should be looking at is what the development is actually delivering. The impact assessment says that promoting sustainable development will be done

“by creating a more positive environment for investment, which is beneficial for communities.”

Sustainable development in the national planning policy framework is discussed in terms of social justice, environmental limits and the sustainable economy. So there are two different concepts here of what sustainable development is. The Bill is in favour of approving quickly but not necessarily looking at quality.