This is entry number 317, published on 1 February 2012, of a blog on the Planning Act 2008 infrastructure planning and authorisation regime. Click here for a link to the whole blog. If you would like to be notified when the blog is updated, with links sent by email, click here.
Today's entry reports on forthcoming changes to application acceptance criteria.
The Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) has received 13 applications in its lifetime so far (the latest today), and we now know that it will live for 25 months altogether - 23 down, two to go. Will it receive any more in those last two months? After that, of course, they won't be 'IPC applications', they will be 'NID applications' (National Infrastructure Directorate) or perhaps more accurately and consistently 'DCO applications' (Development Consent Order).
At the moment, eight applications are 'eligible', as they have completed the formal pre-application consultation that is required before an application can be made. But will any of them - or any others - be made before 1 April?
That is of course up to their promoters, but a reason that they might be reticent is that the regime is changing somewhat on 1 April to coincide with the abolition of the IPC, via the Localism Act 2011. Change in itself may cause hesitation, but one change in particular may cause particular pause for thought. This is that the test for an application to be accepted for examination is being relaxed.
Currently, these are the tests for accepting an application:
- it must be an application for development consent;
- development consent is required for at least some of the development it contains;
- pre-application consultation requirements have been complied with;
- the application complies with standards, and rules about form and contents; and
- it gives reasons for not adhering to guidance.
From 1 April these will be the tests:
- the application must be an application for development consent;
- development consent is required;
- pre-application consultation requirements have been complied with; and
- the application and accompanying documents are of a standard that the Secretary of State considers satisfactory.
(I have reordered them from the Planning Act to make the differences clearer) Essentially the last two of the original tests have been relaxed to create the last new test. Pre-application consultation has not been relaxed, nor has the requirement for a consultation report, but the standards for application documents have changed from strict compliance to a subjective test of being satisfactory. The consultation report is an interesting example - I would say that it doesn't have to be perfectly presented, but the consultation that was actually carried out and the account taken of has to be as good as it ever did.
The closer the date gets to 1 April, the lower the disadvantages in terms of delay become in waiting until 1 April to make an application, when it is more likely to be accepted. In fact it is probably safe to make an application in the last two or three weeks of March, because the decision whether to accept it will still be on or after 1 April and the new criteria will apply. Something from the government to confirm that might help.
Having said that, the IPC has only rejected one out of the 12 applications it has received - the first one, in fact - and so perhaps the fear of rejection is greater than the likelihood of it. On balance, I think that the answer to the question posed in the title is more likely to be yes than no - one or two applications may trickle in just before the abolition date.
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