APPENDIX 1: TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING
(MAYOR OF LONDON) ORDER 2008 (SI 2008/580)
Further information from the Department for Communities
and Local Government
Introduction
1. The Greater London Authority (GLA) Act 2007
implements many of the outcomes of the Government's review of
the GLA that required primary legislation. The review fulfilled
a 2005 manifesto commitment by identifying additional powers and
responsibilities that would be best exercised by the GLA in order
to devolve power from Whitehall to London and improve the delivery
of strategic public services in the capital. It is necessary to
update the Mayor of London Order 2000, the Town and Country Planning
(Local Development)(England) Regulations 2004 and GOL Circular
1/2000 to implement the new powers in the Act. The Mayor of London
Order and Circular will come into force on 6 April, but the Local
Development (Amendment) Regulations are not expected to come into
force until June at the earliest.
2. The Government is clear that planning decisions
should be made at the most appropriate level of government. In
London this means that the Mayor should be able to determine some
strategically important applications. The Order sets out the mechanisms
by which the Mayor sees, and can take over, potentially strategic
important applications; in particular the thresholds identifying
which applications are referred to him, the policy test he must
apply to decide whether his intervention is justified and the
procedures he must follow in making decisions.
3. The Local Development (Amendment) Regulations
will set out the process by which the Mayor can intervene in borough
Local Development Schemes. The GOL Circular sets out further guidance
on all these matters, as well as the processes by which the Mayor
must prepare the Spatial Development Strategy (which are unchanged
by the new powers).
4. This consultation on the draft Order builds
on an earlier consultation, carried out in autumn 2006, which
sought views on the broad content of the new Order. We also published
two drafts of the Order, in January and July 2007, to help inform
Parliamentary scrutiny of the GLA Bill.
5. The issues of most concern to stakeholders
- the thresholds for referring applications to the Mayor, the
policy tests and the process - were fully debated in the Lords
Committee and Report. A wide range of stakeholders from business
organisations to local authorities and their representative bodies
were also directly engaged with by Ministers and officials on
these issues.
Consultation on Mayor of London Order (November 2007
- February 2008)
6. The second consultation on the Mayor of London
Order was undertaken between 22 November and 14 February 2008.
Many of the issues raised in responses to this consultation are
the same as raised in the first consultation and subsequently
debated extensively in Parliament, sometimes at the behest of
the consultee themselves. For example, London Councils are recorded
as answering 'No' to the question 'Do you agree with the Government
proposals on thresholds for referral of planning applications
to the Mayor? If not, what changes do you propose?' because
they wanted Category 1A to remain at 500 housing units rather
than be reduced to 150 units. However this key point was subject
to extensive debate in Parliament and an amendment at Lords report
plus a vote to keep the threshold at 500 units. The threshold
increase was defeated by 193 - 127 votes. (Hansard: Vol 693 No.108
Column 547 [see also Columns 531 et seq] Tuesday 26 June: House
of Lords Official report - Greater London Authority Bill).http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200607/ldhansrd/text/70626-0007.htm
7. 37 responses were made to the second consultation.
This compares with over 200 that were made to the first consultation
which ran between August and October 2006. We recognise that the
response to the consultation was negative but we consider that
the extensive earlier consultation on these proposals and the
full parliamentary scrutiny given to the key issues mean that
we do have a solid basis on which to go forward with the Order
and Circular.
March 2008
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