HL Deb 30 November 2004 vol 667 cc18-9WS
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 have today published a consultation paper on proposed secondary legislation and guidance to implement some of the development control provisions in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. We intend that, after a three-month consultation period and consideration of the responses received, the provisions would come into effect in May 2005.

We are preparing to implement the development control provisions in Part 4 of the Act in stages. Where the provisions in the Act require secondary legislation we are proposing changes to the general development procedure order. The paper proposes the form and content for economic impact reports for major infrastructure projects. The paper proposes a 21-day period in which statutory consultees must respond to consultation on planning applications. Last year some consultees pointed out the inconsistency between this period and the ability of local planning authorities (LPAs) to determine applications within 14 days. We are now proposing that LPAs should not determine applications until the consultee has responded or after 21 days, whichever is the sooner.

The consultation includes updated guidance on some of the provisions in the Act for which secondary legislation is not required. The guidance refers to the right of appeal for non-determination of a similar repeat application. We will not be introducing the power to decline to determine overlapping application (twin-tracking) until the performance of local authorities in handling planning applications improves.

There is revised draft guidance on the duration of permission and consent. The Act reduces the default period for the commencement of a detailed permission from five to three years. The Government have acknowledged that periods longer than three years might be appropriate in some cases. For most major developments, such as complex regeneration projects, outline rather than detailed applications are likely to be the route to permission. The period for approval of reserved matters after outline permission has been granted will normally remain as three years. The guidance makes clear the need for flexibility on the part of local authorities in their dealings with applicants on the duration of permissions and consents.

There is also draft guidance on consultation with regional planning bodies (RPBs) on certain applications where development would be of major importance for the implementation of the regional spatial strategy or for other types of development on which RPBs specify that they wish to be consulted.