Planning Bill

I believe that the noble Lord seeks assurances from me on the development of green-belt land. I think that I am in a position to give him those assurances. Indeed, my speaking note says that there is not a cigarette paper between him and the Government on the overall aims. I hope that is always true of the detail. The term ““green belt”” relates to land that is designated as green-belt land in accordance with the 1938 green belt Act. Under that Act, local authorities were given powers to hold certain land surrounding London and other metropolitan areas on trust, and development of that land is subject to restrictions over and above those imposed by the Town and Country Planning Act. Where land is designated as green-belt land for the purposes of the 1938 Act, a separate consent is required from the Secretary of State to enable the land to be developed. It might be helpful if I refer to this as statutory green-belt land. There is a second category of land, which is land designated as green-belt land by a local authority in its local development plan. Such land is currently protected from development by both local and national planning policy, which prohibit inappropriate development in the green belt except in very special circumstances. This type of designated green belt is not the same as statutory green-belt land as designated under the 1938 Act. While the development of this designated green-belt land requires planning permission in the usual way, it does not also require a separate consent from the Secretary of State under the 1938 Act. The Planning Bill deals with both these types of land by means of the single consent regime. As noble Lords will see from Clause 32, the single consent regime means that promoters will make a single application to the IPC instead of separate applications under the 1938 Act and the Town and Country Planning Act. An order granting development consent could, depending on the circumstances, authorise the development of both statutory green-belt land and land designated as green belt in a local development plan. An order granting development consent in relation to green-belt land will therefore have a similar effect to a combination of a planning permission and a separate consent from the Secretary of State under the 1938 Act. However, I can assure the noble Lord that it is our intention that the commission and the Secretary of State will be required to adhere to the policies set out in any relevant national policy statement, particularly in relation to the protection of green-belt land, whether statutory or non-statutory, and to take into account such other factors as may be prescribed in all decisions on whether to grant consent for a development in the green belt. We intend that national policy statements will explicitly reflect existing policy on green belt as set out in PPG2, thereby requiring the IPC to reach a decision on the same basis as local planning authorities currently do on applications in the green belt. We also intend to make subsequent regulations that require the commission or the Secretary of State to take into account the purpose for which green-belt land is held when deciding whether to grant consent for NSIP development on green-belt land. In that way, the special status of green-belt land will be protected to the full extent that the noble Lord would wish to see.