Planning Bill

Not necessarily. We are talking about pre-application consultation. All I can say to the noble Lord is that it is because we want this to be as acceptable and credible as possible that we have built this process into the compliance requirements of the IPC itself. It must be satisfied that this consultation has been conducted properly, impartially, fully and inclusively, not least bringing in those with disabilities, which we addressed this morning. Moving on, promoters are also responsible for carrying out an assessment under the EU EIA directive, where one would be required, and for preparing an environmental statement, which involves consultation with certain bodies. There is element of precedence here. Amendments Nos. 178 and 203 probe how far promoters would have to explain how they had accommodated responses. Amendment No. 178 would require that the consultation report would include details of the extent to which the application is affected. Amendment No. 203 would require that, under that duty in Clause 48, they would have to take account of responses to publicity and consultation and so on. As I said, some projects will be more controversial than others and will be bound to excite a huge number of responses. I do not think it is sensible, as suggested by Amendment No. 203, to require promoters to explain how far they were unable to accommodate each individual response. However, I am more sympathetic to the principle underpinning Amendment No. 178. Clause 36 already requires promoters to report the account taken of the responses to public consultation. That would include describing how the responses had affected the consultation. Therefore, I believe that the Bill meets those requirements. Other amendments, for example, Amendment No. 186, would further broaden the list of statutory consultees to include local organisations representing disabled people—I again pay tribute to the work of the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, in ensuring that we listen to and are cognisant of the needs of people with disabilities. I put that in the context of the other amendments that consider other consultees. Earlier we discussed the role of local authorities. Local authorities are the only statutory consultees specified in the Bill because, as I said, they are both the elected representatives of their areas and experts in local consultation. However, I am sympathetic to what noble Lords seek to achieve with these amendments. A wide range of bodies should be consulted by promoters about applications, but primary legislation is not the right place to put such a list. However, I reassure noble Lords that we would certainly expect that organisations representing disabled people and the marine environment would be specified as statutory consultees where appropriate. I hope that takes account of the amendment in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Holbeach. There are a raft of amendments concerning parish councils and national parks. The Committee has made its views clear on where it stands on these matters and the importance it attaches to these very important bodies. I have instructed my officials to ensure that, wherever appropriate, national park authorities and parish councils will be included as statutory consultees in regulations. I hope that fully meets the requirements of noble Lords who raised these points. As I said, we cannot put these in the Bill. We are putting no statutory consultees in the Bill. However, they will be clearly identified as statutory consultees in secondary legislation. Amendment No. 193 in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, would require that an applicant make diligent inquiry to identify people with an interest in the land. I can confirm that this is the effect of the clause as drafted. Therefore, I believe that is taken into account. Amendments Nos. 193A and 225A stand in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, who asked how we expected to be able to consult and notify people who might be able to claim compensation for injurious affection and sought to remove the relevant provisions. I wish to respond in some detail as this is an important point. Identifying people who could be able to make a claim for injurious affection is far from impossible and this is certainly not the first time that we have done this. I reassure the noble Lord on that point as he was obviously concerned about it. The relevant provisions in the Bill are based on those in the Acquisition of Land Act 1981, which requires that where a compulsory purchase order is being made in relation to a project, people who might be able to claim for injurious affection must also be notified. It is only right that people who could be affected in this way should be notified and consulted. Not to do so would infringe their rights under the ECHR. Injurious affection is not abstract or mysterious; it is based on the depreciation in land value as a result of the construction or use of works. Therefore, we have precedents; this is a very specific procedure and we are required to do it under the European Convention on Human Rights. Promoters are responsible for understanding the potential impacts of their projects and should therefore already have evidence as to what they will be at this stage. However, in response to concerns that this requirement is drawn too widely in the Bill, we are bringing forward amendments, which will be debated shortly, to require the notification and consultation of people who might be able to make a claim so far as they are known after a ““diligent inquiry””. The words ““diligent inquiry”” appear in government Amendment No. 192. This will ensure that, were a developer to miss a person who might be able to make such a claim, despite their best efforts, neither they nor their consultation would be vulnerable. I hope that the noble Lord is reassured by that. Amendment No. 198 in the names of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, and the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, seeks to ensure that the timescale within which someone must respond to consultation—the point at which the clock starts ticking, as it were—starts to run from the point where the person being consulted has received all the documents required under the provisions of the Bill to be served on them. That is already the position under the existing wording of Clause 44: the reference to the documents means all the documents. Staying with the issue of timescales, Amendment Nos. 196, 197, 199A and 250 all urge the Government to extend these. Amendments Nos. 196 and 197 argue that consultees need to be given sufficient time to respond to a promoter’s consultation, but it is equally important that they provide the promoter with any information or advice he needs in a timely manner as the promoter will be reliant on certain consultees such as local authorities for specific information. Therefore, statutory consultees who hold such information have to be able to respond promptly and properly to help the investigation along. The noble Lord, Lord Greaves, as always, spoke eloquently on this issue, but I stress that the 28-day period specified in relation to pre-application consultation is a minimum period. It will be open to an applicant to give those consulted a longer period to respond. Applications will vary in complexity and will require different periods of time for consultation. Promoters will have to look very carefully to ensure that those periods meet the requirements of disabled people. I take the point that noble Lord made that often documents in a special format come out far too late for disabled people to make use of them. We should try to do something about that. Therefore, we have flexibility when specifying a deadline for consultation. The question arises of why the promoter should make that offer. However, they are in a position to come to a view on the timetable. The promoter knows the detail of what he is dealing with. That is all subject to the same safeguards in relation to the IPC advice and guidance, advice from the local authority and guidance from the Secretary of State. Those safeguards will kick in there. The formal pre-application consultation is unlikely to be either the beginning or the end of the process. That is relevant because many of these details will have been hammered out in bilateral conversations with individuals, agencies and groups in the community before the application even reaches the pre-application process. On Amendments Nos. 199A and 200, I underline that the local authority is not being consulted on the application—that takes place under Clause 41—but is being asked to express its opinion on how a promoter should consult people in the local authority’s area. It is important that local authorities respond quickly to this consultation and it is reasonable to give a four-week opportunity to do so, because we do not want any procrastination at these sorts of process levels. The timescales set out allow for flexibility but provide safeguards. I hope that noble Lords will accept that explanation. Amendments Nos. 201 and 183 would require that arrangements for publishing an application locally include one talking newspaper where available and that arrangements must be made to make sure that the register of applications maintained by the IPC is available in formats accessible to disabled people. I fully sympathise with the purpose of these amendments. I can give an assurance that guidance from the Secretary of State under Clause 46(5)(b) will give consideration to the need for consultation to address the needs of people with disabilities. As I have said, the Disability Discrimination Act will apply. Amendment No. 176, tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, and the noble Earl, Lord Cathcart, would alter Clause 36 to require an applicant to provide evidence that he has taken all reasonable steps to ensure that his proposals conform with the local development framework relevant to the affected area. I happily respond to the invitation made by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves. I will be delighted to send a long letter to noble Lords about how this locks into the planning process. It is not complex, but it is quite difficult to visualise. We are not talking about a hierarchy of planning documents, although the NPS will be the material consideration. We are talking about the integration of the planning policies that are already in place into the NPS and the reflection of those policies, through the regional spatial strategies, into the local development framework. I will happily set out for noble Lords how we see that working and the flow chart that it will involve. It is already a requirement that, once a national policy statement is established, the relevant development plans, including regional spatial strategies and local development frameworks, should be consistent with it. I take the point raised by the amendment that the developer must work with the local authority in relation to the local development plan to ensure that, in so far as it can be consistent, it is. We hope that there would be evidence of close working throughout the entire process. Local development plans are coming on stream and the process has been accelerated. Part of the purpose of the Bill is to simplify some of those processes. It would not be helpful to require the promoters to sign up the policy in an NPS with what might be out-of-date policy in an LDF, which I think is implied in the amendment. We would have to leave it to common sense and clear thinking. The Bill requires that NSIP applications must be decided in accordance with the relevant national policy statement going through that process. For normal applications, the evidence of conforming to the local plan will have to be shown at different stages as it goes along. However, that does not mean that local concerns will not be taken into account; far from it. In fact, the Bill places a clear role for local authorities to ensure that local concerns are given proper weight. In addition to their role in consultation that I have specified, the Bill makes specific provision for local authorities to be statutory consultees and to submit a report of local impacts. The local development plan will be reflected throughout that and it will highlight the impact of the proposals. I have spoken at some length. I hope that I have addressed all the issues that have been raised in the amendments.