HC Deb 20 January 1988 vol 125 cc745-6W
41. Mr. Adley

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he intends to introduce a new planning circular; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Heddle

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will be publishing his conclusions on the draft statement of planning policy on large out-of-town shopping centres.

Mr. Waldegrave

My right hon. Friend is publishing today two new series of guidance notes. Planning policy guidance notes (PPG) will provide guidance on general and specific aspects of planning policy, and minerals planning guidance notes (MPG) will give advice on the control of minerals development.

PPGs and MPGs aim to provide concise and practical guidance on planning policies, in a clearer and more accessible form than in departmental circulars, the earlier series of development control policy notes (DCPNs), and other statements. In future, advice on legislation and procedures will be given in departmental circulars, while PPGs and MPGs will be the main source of policy guidance on planning matters.

In most cases the content of the new notes will be based on extant circulars and DCPNs. An index of all the relevant circulars is also being published today — in fulfilment of an undertaking in response to the fifth report, Session 1985–86, of the Environment Committee in the last Parliament. Unless otherwise stated in the PPGs and MPGs, those circulars remain extant for the time being, but the need to retain them will be reviewed in the light of experience with PPGs and MPGs. DCPNs are now being withdrawn to the extent indicated in the relevant PPGs.

The PPG and MPG notes published today are:

  • PPG1—General policy and principles
  • PPG2—Green belts
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  • PPG3—Land for housing
  • PPG4—Industrial and commercial development and small firms
  • PPG5—Simplified planning zones
  • PPG6—Major retail development
  • PPG7—Rural enterprise and development
  • PPG8—Telecommunications
  • PPG9—Regional guidance for the south east
  • MPG1—General considerations and the development plan system
  • MPG2—Applications, permissions and conditions

Except for PPG2, 3 and 9, these notes are being issued jointly by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.

Further titles will be published in due course.

Copies of the PPG, MPG, and the index of extant circulars, are being placed in the Library.