My Lords, I shall speak to Amendment 179 in my name, which inserts a purpose of planning provision into the Bill, as well as to Amendment 271, which inserts a duty relating to climate change in planning functions. I declare my interests as a director of Peers for the Planet and as a project director working for Atkins. I also thank my supporters, the noble Baronesses, Lady Hayman and Lady Boycott, and the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath.
What is really important about these amendments is the need to better enable local authorities and give them the tools that they need to work towards our net-zero and environmental targets. For me, this is one of the key missing links in the whole governance system for net zero and the environment. We have lots of top-level policy from the Government but little guidance or direction for local authorities so that they can play their role. We have many local authorities that really want to play their part but do not have the tools or resources to do so, whether in energy planning or the wider planning system. What this leads to is an
inconsistent approach and a patchwork quilt of responses across the many local authorities in their approach to the environment and net zero.
The Skidmore review looked into this area in detail, and it is worth quoting briefly what it stated. It said:
“One of the starkest messages from hundreds of organisations and individuals is that the planning system is undermining net zero and the economic opportunities that come with it. The Review recommends wide-ranging local planning reform—from the introduction of a net zero test to a rapid review of bottlenecks in the system—to ensure that it is fully aligned with our net zero future”.
The resulting action on implementing a net zero test was in its 25 key recommendations by 2025. That is the level of importance here in the wider net zero picture. I also note that the Climate Change Committee said, in its progress report to Parliament last year:
“Net Zero and climate resilience should be embedded within the planning reforms that are expected as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill”.
The lack of a net zero test is having an impact right now. For example, there is the case of a major solar farm on 75 hectares of land near where I live in Derbyshire. The project involved the production of around 50 megawatts of renewable energy, sufficient for around 13,000 homes or more than 22% of all Amber Valley borough’s households. In December 2022, a planning inspector refused permission on appeal, on the grounds that the project would harm the landscape, character and visual amenity. This case highlights that fact that, in the contribution that the project makes, the delivery of net zero may not always be given sufficient weight and priority, which would be resolved by a net-zero test running through the whole planning system.
My Amendment 179 would resolve this by introducing a “purpose of planning” provision into the Bill; namely, a duty for national and local policy decisions to reference the Climate Change Act 2008 and the Environment Act 2021. Amendment 271 is a scaled-back amendment that could also be considered by the Government. It would amend the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 to ensure that climate change is given special regard in individual development proposals.
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The Government may make the point that this is considered in the non-statutory National Planning Policy Framework—the NPPF—and that this will be updated as part of the current consultation. Although I welcome the commitments made in that consultation, first, the NPPF is non-statutory guidance and not legally binding and, secondly, no amendments are proposed in the current draft of the NPPF to ensure that climate change constitutes a material consideration in the determination of individual planning applications.
I welcomed the Minister’s commitment at Second Reading:
“The Government recognise the challenge of climate change. It is critical that the planning system must address this effectively”.
The Minister also highlighted that the Bill already includes some provisions whereby some strategies and plans
“must be designed to secure that the development and use of land … contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change”.—[Official Report, 17/1/23; col. 1808.]
The words of the Minister and the existing provisions in the Bill are very welcome, but this is not the same as a clear net-zero test that links to our specific climate and environmental targets and permeates all planning decisions. In the same vein as this is the current statutory duty to contribute to the mitigation of and adaption to climate change in relation to development plan documents under the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.
Many years ago, I started my career as a systems engineer, helping to manage complex engineering projects and ensuring that the various elements were considered as a whole, rather than as disparate elements, which is essential for the success of any large project. Net zero is perhaps the ultimate systems problem that we have to deal with. I remember a meeting that I attended last year with Patrick Vallance, where he stated:
“This is a systems … problem. It affects virtually every part of every department and, therefore, you need to think of this as a systems approach”.
These amendments are in the same vein. Rather than the current piecemeal mentions of climate change and planning policy scattered throughout the legislation and the National Planning Policy Framework, this is a really good opportunity for the Government to update the Bill to fully embed these targets within statute and ensure that there is a coherent thread running through the whole planning system.
This is the prime opportunity to clarify in statute our planning system’s role in delivering on our climate change and environment targets and removing the ambiguities and inconsistencies of the current system. I hope that the Government will agree that now is the time to seize this legislative opportunity, because there will not be another in the short or medium term. Now is the time to act.