5.13 At present, there are a number of special regimes for considering whether to grant development consent for projects such as power stations and electricity lines, some gas supply infrastructure, pipelines, ports where development extends beyond the shoreline, roads, and railways. These include the Transport and Works Act 1992, the Highways Act 1980, the Harbours Act 1964, the Gas Act 1965, the Electricity Act 1989, and the Pipelines Act 1962. Airports are dealt with under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990.
5.14 These regimes provide a range of different authorisations necessary to implement projects, including:
permissions or consents, such as actual or deemed planning permission; powers, such as the power to compulsorily purchase land or to stop up a right
of way; and
2 Licensing for offshore oil and gas supply infrastructure will remain with the Department of Trade and Industry.
amendments to private legislation which established the existing infrastructure,
particularly for railways or harbours, and the exclusion or application with modifications of provisions in public and general Acts.
5.15 These regimes involve a variety of different procedures. For instance:
the applicant may be required to pay fees to the decision maker for projects
under the Transport and Works Act, Harbours Act, Town and Country Planning Act and Electricity Act applications, but fees may not be charged for applications under the Highways Act, Water Industry Act or Gas Act;
the costs of public inquiries on projects under the Water Industry Act cannot
be recovered from applicants, but costs of inquiries for projects under the Transport and Works Act, Harbours Act, Town and Country Planning Act and Highways Act can be recovered;
minor changes can be made to an application after it has been submitted to
the decision maker under all regimes apart from the Water Industry Act;
rules under the Harbours Act, Highways Act and Water Industry Act cannot
be disapplied, but rules under the Transport and Works Act, Electricity and Gas Acts can be, for instance the publicity requirements can be varied;
objections must be received within six weeks for projects under the Transport
and Works Act and seven weeks under the Harbour Act in order to trigger an inquiry. For the Electricity Act, members of the public have 28 days from the publication of the second notice to qualify as registered objectors, but the relevant planning authority has four months to register its objection (two months in the case of overhead lines applications). The Gas Act provides 28 days from the publication of notice of the application for objections to be registered. The Water Industry Act provides 28 days from publication of first advert or 25 days after the London Gazette advert.
5.16 Simply transferring the current suite of development consent regimes to the
infrastructure planning commission unchanged would be problematic. The process would remain complex and time consuming, potentially limiting the efficiency improvements that the new system could deliver. The different procedures across the regimes could force the commission to treat different projects inconsistently. And, where an individual project, such as a major port involving linked road and rail developments, required applications under several different regimes, there would be a risk of introducing significant confusion, complexity and delay into the process.
5.17 Rationalising the different consent regimes for nationally significant infrastructure projects should, on the other hand, deliver significant improvements in the speed, transparency and predictability of decisions. It would allow us to harmonise the requirements on developers; create a single application process for nationally significant infrastructure projects; and harmonise the procedural rules which then govern the examination and determination of applications. It would also allow us to bring together the range of authorisations needed to implement nationally significant infrastructure projects in the infrastructure planning commission, so that the commission could consider projects holistically and give the necessary authorisations required to proceed. This would simplify the process for promoters, participants and the infrastructure planning commission.
5.18 In order to simplify and streamline the statutory process for nationally significant infrastructure projects, and ensure that the infrastructure planning commission is able to grant the authorisations necessary to construct these projects, we propose to:
rationalise the different development consent regimes and create, as far as
possible, a unified, single consent regime with a harmonised set of requirements and procedures; and
authorise the infrastructure planning commission, under this revised regime,
to grant consents, confer powers and amend legislation, necessary to implement nationally significant infrastructure projects;
these authorisations could include:
– permission to carry out works needed to construct infrastructure projects; – deemed planning permission;
– compulsory purchase of land;
– powers to amend, apply or disapply local and public legislation governing infrastructure such as railways or ports;
– powers to stop up or divert highways or other rights of way or navigating rights, both temporarily and permanently;
– permission to construct associated infrastructure and access land in order to do this (eg bridges, pipelines, overhead power lines and wayleaves);
– listed building consent, conservation area consent, and scheduled monument consent;3
– hazardous substances consent;
– creation of new rights over land, including rights of way, navigating rights and easements;
– powers to lop or fell trees; and
– powers to authorise any other matters ancillary to the construction and operation of works which can presently be authorised by ministerial orders.
5.19 The Government is not proposing that any of the powers providing for the regulation of the subsequent operation of the infrastructure, such as to limit environmental impacts and address health and safety issues, should be transferred to the infrastructure planning commission. The Government also does not propose that the commission would deal with disputes about compensation in relation to compulsory purchase orders. These will continue to be referred to the Lands Tribunal where necessary. Further, the Government does not propose reducing or removing any permitted development rights that bodies currently have in respect of their land and property under the Town and Country Planning
(General Permitted Development) Order 1995.
Consultation question:
Do you agree, in principle, that the commission should be authorised to grant consents, confer powers including powers to compulsorily purchase land, and amend legislation necessary to implement nationally significant infrastructure projects?
Are there any authorisations listed that it would be appropriate to deal with separately, and if so which body should approve them, or that are not included and should be?
5.20 The Government may, in light of the proposals for handling nationally significant infrastructure projects, make some alterations to existing development consent regimes for infrastructure projects which are not nationally significant.
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3 The Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s White Paper, Heritage Protection for the 21st Century, published on March 8th 2007, proposes an integrated range of measures for a new heritage protection system, including a single system of designation for historic assets and an associated unification of Listed Building and Scheduled Monument Consents as a new Historic Asset Consent. We envisage that, in advance of the legislative change needed to introduce the new system of heritage protection reform, the infrastructure planning commission would have appropriate powers to grant Listed Building Consent and Scheduled Monument Consent for nationally significant infrastructure projects subject to the commission having in-house heritage expertise.