Planning Bill

This set of amendments largely makes technical changes to ensure that the provisions of part 7 of the Bill work correctly on the issues of compulsory acquisition of land—in particular, the compulsory acquisition of specially protected categories of land known as ““special land””, and including common land. The definitions can be found in part 7 of the Bill. Please excuse me for sounding a bit like a bingo caller, but I must refer to a whole raft of small technical amendments. New clauses 17 and 26, amendments Nos. 93 to 96, 101, 102, 119, 122, 123, 125, 126, 128, 129, 131, 132, 140, 141, 146, 147, 151, 153 to 156, 252, 255 and 269 clarify that development consent orders can authorise the compulsory acquisition of rights over land and compulsorily create new rights over land. I shall address that in a little more detail. Those new clauses and amendments are necessary to avoid a situation in which a promoter must unnecessarily purchase the whole of a person's land when all they need is a right over it—or under it, such as the right to store natural gas in the subsoil. The amendments provide flexibility and more options for the developer and land owners. New clauses 18 and 19 give protections for statutory undertakers, such as water companies, gas transporters and mobile phone operators, that have apparatus on land that is to be compulsorily acquired. If those statutory undertakers object to the proposed extinguishment of the right of way on the land or the proposed removal of their apparatus from the land, the Secretary of State who sponsors the relevant statutory undertaker would need to consent to the provisions. Amendments Nos. 117, 120, 121, 134, 137, 142 and 145 clarify the procedures by which a promoter can propose land as a replacement for special land that it seeks to acquire compulsorily—for example, common land, allotments or statutory undertakers' land. The Secretary of State can certify that the proposed replacement land is as good as the land that it replaces. When a promoter intends to acquire compulsorily common land or rights over common land, the amendments clarify that the Secretary of State must notify those interested in the proposal of his or her intention to certify the promoters' offer of replacement land as acceptable. The amendments also allow the Secretary of State to cause a public inquiry to be held into the proposed package of replacement common land. That strikes us as a common-sense thing to do to ensure fairness. The provisions are designed to ensure alignment with existing provisions in the Acquisition of Land Act 1981. New clause 15 clarifies that the decision maker may authorise the compulsory acquisition of land that was not included in the original application if all affected parties consent, or if specified procedures have been followed. Without that amendment, only land identified in the original application could be compulsorily acquired. It is important to allow the decision maker the flexibility to make changes to the draft order if they believe that a decision to approve could be made only on the basis of a project that requires revisions. The amendment gives the Secretary of State a power to prescribe the procedures to be followed whenever the decision maker wishes to approve additional compulsory acquisition. We believe it is right for the Secretary of State to set the rules when additional compulsory acquisition is envisaged, in order to ensure that human rights and other interests are respected. We anticipate that these procedures would, at a minimum, ensure that the promoter and all interested parties were notified and may make representations, and that the decision maker must take into account any representations and objections made about the proposed changes. Amendments Nos. 124, 127 and 130 clarify who are to be counted as statutory undertakers for the purposes of clauses 114, 115 and 116. That is necessary in order to include companies that have been deemed as statutory undertakers in legislation other than the 1981 Act. The amendments allow for flexibility beyond that Act. Amendments Nos. 135, 138, 143 and 148 respond to concerns raised in Committee about the possibility that the promoter of a nationally significant infrastructure project may claim a need to acquire common land compulsorily in order to secure its preservation or preserve its management. The amendments remove that possibility and respond to the requests that were made in Committee. Amendments Nos. 136 and 144 respond to concerns raised in Committee about the threshold of 209.03 sq m of common land above which compulsory acquisition can be made only if a package of replacement land is offered, or through special parliamentary procedure. As we described in Committee, that figure was merely a metrification of 250 sq yd. We were asked to round that number down, and we have done so by rounding the threshold down to 200 sq m, which is in line with the existing threshold in the Commons Act 2006. Amendment No. 157 clarifies that if a development consent order extinguishes a public right of way, the appropriate authority must order that that right be revived if it becomes clear that the promoter has abandoned proposals to acquire the land covered by the right of way. New clause 37 requires that the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965 applies to cases in which compulsory acquisition is authorised by a development consent order unless the order specifies otherwise. There are other ways in which compulsory purchase orders can come about beyond the 1965 Act, so the new clause leaves this open and provides for that flexibility. It also applies the 1965 Act to the acquisition of land where a landowner serves a blight notice because an application that has been submitted proposes its compulsory purchase. That provides safeguards and protection for those whose land may well be blighted as a consequence of the process. Amendments Nos. 186 and 187 make further technical changes to ensure that blight notices following the passage of the Bill are served on the correct authority and identify the appropriate enactment. I appreciate that this is a large array of amendments, but they are mostly technical.