Contribution
My Lords, this amendment stands alone and is tabled in my name. It seeks to introduce a principle of proportionality in planning, in accordance with which all planning functions would need to be exercised and all planning laws would need to be interpreted.
Although the basic structures of the planning environmental impact assessment and habitat assessment processes have remained broadly the same for a long time, their application has, over the years, become increasingly and unnecessarily disproportionate. For example, there is now in widespread areas of the planning system an overprecautionary approach to the precautionary principle which, in practice, is treated by many in the system as requiring zero risk even though the case law does not require that. Environmental statements, which in the early years of the EIA regime were reasonably concise, are now frequently delivered in vans and take up a whole room in offices, which is unhelpful to everybody concerned in the system. There is a recent instance of a DCO examining inspector asking 2,000 questions in relation to a DCO application. Again, it is not outside the norm.
Statutory consultees insist on planning applications providing a level of detail wholly disproportionate to the stage of decision-making in question. For example, in the context of an application for outline planning permission simply to confirm the principle of development for an allocated site, the principle of which is baked into the allocation, the developers can routinely be required to retest points that are already baked into the allocation or descend into matters of very granular detailed design that are far more suitable for reserved matters and discharge at condition stage. We frequently see consultants producing voluminous reports, often out of caution because of fear of being tripped up and being subject to a professional negligence claim, with considerable liability later.
These are not exceptions that prove a contrary rule; they are all too commonplace. The tendency for prolixity and disproportionality does not make decision-making any better; it just clogs up and slows down the system. This amendment is designed to give all stakeholders in the planning process the confidence that less can, and indeed should, be more, to deter them from delving into unnecessary detail and duplication. It would leave the precautionary principle untouched, so it would not amount to environmental regression, but it would, importantly, anchor it in reality and pragmatism.
There is provision in the drafting of this amendment for the Secretary of State to make and update statutory guidance on how the principle of proportionality is to be applied, which would ensure that the principle is adequately flexible and future-proof.
The proposal for the principle of proportionality has received widespread support in the development sector, including an emphatic endorsement from the Land, Planning and Development Federation, a leading representative body. Moreover, it is entirely consistent with the recently published findings of the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce, whose interim report was published last month. I commend that report to the Minister, if she has not had the opportunity to see it; it strays into other areas, and other ministerial responsibilities in other departments, but chapter 6 has a whole section on disproportionality in the planning context, specifically but not exclusively looking at the nuclear context. I shall quote from the summary of the findings, where it says:
“The preliminary view of the Taskforce is that problems with proportionate decision-making are interrelated and systemic. Various incentives drive more costly and time-consuming standards with no substantive safety or environmental benefits”.
There we have it in clear back and white letters from the regulatory task force that a principle of proportionality would add a huge amount of value to the planning system but at no environmental cost. I beg to move.