Planning Inquiries (Hansard, 17 February 1994)

§ Mr. Curry

The statutory provisions for local plan inquiries were originally introduced by the Town and Country Planning Act 1968. It has always been our practice to charge local planning authorities for the provision of planning inspectors to hold development plan inquiries for them. Questions have recently arisen over the legal basis for this practice. We have considered this issue very carefully, and decided that we should put the matter beyond doubt, by introducing early legislation providing powers for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to recover from local planning authorities the cost of supplying planning inspectors to hold such inquiries. Such legislation would be retrospective in order to validate payments already made and to secure fair treatment of all972W local planning authorities, irrespective of the timing of their local plan inquiries. The legislation would extend to Scotland.

We share the concerns of local authorities about the high level of costs associated with local plan preparation, in which the local plan inquiry is just one stage. We therefore commissioned research to examine the efficiency and effectiveness of development plan inquiries, taking into account the costs involved. We published die executive summary of the research findings and recommendations in November 1993 and invited comments from those likely to have an interest. We will be publishing the final report shortly, together with our own reaction to the recommendations in the report.

We are anxious to achieve full local plan coverage, as required by the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, as soon as possible. We therefore look forward to discussing proposals for improving the process with representatives of the local authorities and others, with a view to identifying the best way forward.