§ The Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker)My right honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I yesterday tabled an amendment to the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill that is currently being considered by the House of Lords as a result of the Review of the Planning Enforcement System in England.
The responses to the review supported our belief that the existing system of planning enforcement is basically sound and does not need to be reinvented. That is not to say that there is no scope for improvements. We received a wide range of ideas and proposals on how to make planning enforcement more effective and better able to play its part in ensuring that people have confidence in the planning system as a whole. We will be publishing our full conclusions on the review later in the year.
One particular proposal for new powers in the review generated a large amount of support. This was for a provision that would enable local planning authorities (LPAs) to issue a temporary stop notice at the start of unauthorised development, before an enforcement notice is served. Having carefully considered these views and the opportunity presented by this Bill to make such changes—to give LPAs the opportunity to speed up the process of enforcement—I have decided to introduce an amendment to this effect.
The amendment is intended to enable local planning authorities to issue a temporary stop notice immediately upon the commencement of a breach of planning control. The proposed amendment differs from stop notices currently provided for in the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 because it is not necessary to serve an enforcement notice at the same time and the proposed temporary stop notice will only have effect for 28 days at most. Local authorities will be able to stop breaches of planning control before the effects become too great and will have a period of time to consider whether further enforcement action is 36WS appropriate, such as service of an enforcement notice with a related stop notice.