Supplementary memorandum by the British
Wind Energy Association
PLANNING REFORM
BILL
BWEA welcomes the Planning Reform Bill as a
serious attempt to tackle unnecessary delays in the planning system.
However, the current version would capture a very small proportion
of renewable energy projects and would do very little for our
industry in tackling climate change and achieving government's
renewable energy targets. The proposed EU Renewable Energy Directive
requires Britain to supply 15% of its energy, including transport
and heat, from renewable sources by 2020. That will mean that
30-40% of our electricity will have to come from renewable energy.
Within the timescale available, wind energy is the only technology
with an industry ready and able to deliver the large scale increase
in generation required to meet the 2020 target.
The issues below need to be seriously considered
by Government in order for BWEA to continue to support the Bill
in the House of Lords.
1. Pre-eminence of NPSs
We understand that local authorities are obliged
to take into account the NPSs when drafting their Local Development
Frameworks and NPSs have to be considered a material planning
consideration when making planning decisions in advance of updating
the LDFs. However, we believe that is not enough. PPS22 is currently
a material consideration but has little influence in determining
individual planning applications. Therefore, it is essential that
the pre-eminence of NPSs is clearly established within both the
IPC and TCPA consent regimes. In order to ensure consistency across
planning regimes, and clarity of policy hierarchy, it is imperative
that Section 19 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004
be amended to require that:
— Pre-eminence be given to NPSs in
the preparation of development plan documents, and in advance
of updating existing development plans at the regional and local
level.
— Overarching consideration be given
to NPSs when determining individual planning applications.
Considering that the majority of onshore projects
are below 50MW, NPSs would provide very little benefit to our
industry without the changes above.
From a previous meeting with BERR we understood
that DCLG would issue a document that outline the relationship
between NPS and the TCPA regime. We would be interested to learn
what the status of this document is.
2. 50MW threshold
BWEA appreciate the need to strike the right
balance between nationally significant projects and those which
should be determined at local level. We also realise government's
commitment to devolution. BWEA does not advocate a change to the
50MW threshold but seeks a commitment from the government to use
its referral powers to the IPC under clause 33 for energy schemes
under 50MW in the following circumstances:
— If a number of local authority applications
are `clustered' and due to the scale and proximity of developments
are considered to be of national significance.
— If an onshore application has spent
above 16 weeks in planning and following request by the developer
should be considered an exceptional case.
The first point, the "cluster approach",
would de facto create developments that are considered
nationally significant, would speed up the determination of planning
applications and would spread the commercial risk for developers.
The second point would be an incentive for timely consideration
under the TCPA regime without removing local authority consideration.
The table below illustrates the small number of projects, around
30 per year, which would fall into this category.
2007 BREAKDOWN OF LOCAL PLANNING AUTHORITY
SUBMISSIONS THAT GO BEYOND 16 WEEKS
| England | Wales
|
| Number of MW | 379 |
122 |
| Number of submissions | 30 |
3 |
| Percentage of submissions | 94%
| 75% |
| |
|
We seek a commitment by the government in front of the House
and by letter to use its referral powers of Clause 33 of the Bill
as outlined above.
3. 100MW offshore threshold
The Government is proposing that when the Marine Bill is
introduced in the next Parliamentary session the new Marine Management
Organisation (MMO), will have responsibility for the consents
process for offshore energy installations generating less than
100MW, whereas projects above 100MW will fall under the remit
of the IPC. BWEA believes that this will create a disjointed approach
to offshore planning and would unnecessarily duplicate offshore
consenting skills and knowledge. For this reason the proposed
100MW threshold for IPC consideration of offshore consents should
be reduced to 1MW thereby extending its coverage to wave &
tidal and aligning it with current section 36 requirements.
4. CIL
We understand that the CIL is intended to support the infrastructure
needed to support the development of an area, and not, as with
the current system of planning obligations, the infrastructure
necessitated by a particular development. Nevertheless, BWEA believes
the CIL is an unjustified additional charge for developers for
the following reasons:
— Energy projects already contribute directly to
local amenities and community development through the use of section
106 agreements.
— Energy infrastructure is both prior and fundamental
to the very community infrastructure that CIL seeks to support,
because it is needed to provide the energy on which all such infrastructure
critically depends.
— Unlike the vast majority of projects, renewable
energy projects are reversible and invariably have planning conditions/obligations
specifically dealing with decommissioning.
— Wind farm projects do not generally themselves
lead to the need for increased community infrastructure, and where
they do they meet the cost of providing these directly.
The wind industry is keen to provide benefits to the communities
where developments take place, which are relevant, direct and
better reflect the needs of the local community. Therefore, we
recommend that an enhanced mechanism should be considered, specifically
focused on renewables related community benefits
5. Planning Bill and Climate Change
BWEA supports the joint amendment of the Association for
the Conservation of Energy, Ecotricity, Friends of the Earth,
Green Alliance, The National Trust, Ramblers Association, RSPB,
TCPA, UK RIGS and WWF. This amendment outlines that the Bill should
ensure that the process of approving major infrastructure taken
as whole is capable of delivering on two important objectives:
— Fully considering climate change impacts in decision
making.
— Ensuring that full consideration is given to meeting
the UK's national and international obligations on carbon reduction.
BWEA considers the Bill as a great opportunity of tackling
planning delays. However, the above issues need to be addressed
in order to enable BWEA to continue supporting the Bill.
May 2008
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