Planning Bill

My Lords, I, too, support this amendment. I moved a similar amendment in Committee that related only to renewable energies, but this amendment better addresses the point that I sought to make. The point is well made in relation to wind energy, because we in this country have an objective to increase the amount of energy coming from renewable sources. Much wind energy will come from small-scale developments below the Bill’s threshold of 50 megawatts for a significant project. Those developments will therefore not be dealt with by the IPC, but they are critical to realising the national objectives of increasing the amount of energy from renewable sources. There is a conceptual issue here. I perceive that this amendment will put national policy statements at the top of a hierarchy from which other policies cascade, particularly in relation to the development plan. I was involved as Lord Advocate in the change of planning regime in Scotland. In many respects this Bill is better than the one that we put forward in Scotland, but it perhaps falls down in one area; namely, the concept in Scotland of nationally significant projects, then major projects, and then local developments. There is a hierarchy of developments supported by a hierarchy of plans, with, at the apex of the planning system, a spatial policy, the national planning framework, within which are policies to support the development of renewable energy. In a sense, we have excised nationally significant projects and put them off to the Infrastructure Planning Commission with its own regime of national policy statements. We are asking the Government to ensure a consistency of approach from the top down to the bottom. On the issue of wind energy, it is clear that there are many hold-ups in the system for introducing more renewables, such as connections to the National Grid. A good many of those hold-ups occur at the level of the local planning authority where it takes more time than is appropriate to obtain planning permission. There is a strong suspicion that part of the problem is that development plans do not recognise adequately the importance of renewable energy sources, particularly wind. In my submission, this is an important issue and we should ensure that there is consistency of approach.