Today's entry marks the coming into force of the Localism
Act changes to the Planning Act regime.
On Sunday 1 April, a new world of infrastructure planning and
authorisation was born. The world shook, the dust settled, and the
day passed as uneventfully as the government could have hoped. This
was the day that changes to the Planning Act regime made by the
Localism Act 2011 were brought into force. The Infrastructure
Planning Commission (IPC) has vanished from cyberspace, and
Bristol, and has been replaced by the National Infrastructure
Directorate of the Planning Inspectorate. The dramatis
personae is, however, virtually identical. The shorthand for
describing the new organisation has not yet been settled - is it
just PINS, should it be NID, or even NID/PINS? It certainly
shouldn't be MIPU, an old potential name that some less astute
observers are still using.
