Planning Bill

The answer is the same as the answer to the question of what the hon. Gentleman will get for Christmas: wait and see. We will seek to persuade the Government, even at this late stage, to rethink their method of delivering planning policy. Planning must always include a strong element of public accountability. The Secretary of State intends to establish an infrastructure planning commission, a new Government quango that will strip local authorities of their say on planning applications for airports, power stations, motorways, ports, gas and hazardous waste storage facilities, incinerators and sewage treatment plants. One might imagine local communities having a view upon all such things. The new planning quango will be effectively unsackable and unaccountable. Its functions will include the ability to purchase land compulsorily and"““powers to amend, apply or disapply local and public legislation governing infrastructure.””" To give such wide-ranging powers without making those involved equally accountable is dangerous.