The UK Government announced the Planning Bill (England & Wales) receiving Royal Assent on 27 November 2008.

RICS believes that the Planning Bill goes someway towards rationalising the planning system, particularly with regards to the implementation of major infrastructure projects.

The new Planning Act 2008 provides for the:

• Creation of an Infrastructure Planning Commission(IPC)
• Use of National Policy Statements(NPS) to guide decisions on planning
• Provisions for nationally significant infrastructure projects
• Introduction of a Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)
• Changes to development consent orders and enforcement provisions

RICS is represented in CLG working groups looking at developing the CIL regulations. There is much detailed work to be undertaken in regard to these.

These regulations will not be tabled in Parliament until after Summer 2009.

RICS will continue to raise with Government during 2009 the need to:

• improve forward planning and joining up of Government agencies providing infrastructure
• ensure delivery of infrastructure resulting from the collection of the CIL
• repeal the Planning Gain Supplement.

During the passage of the Bill, RICS worked hard to ensure that both RICS members' expert views and the public interest were considered as the Bill passed.

• IPC remain an independent decision making body for projects
• RICS opposition to Local Member Review Bodies
• Improvements to the proposed Community Infrastructure Levy
• Reinforcement of provisions relating to compulsory purchase orders

IPC remains an independent decision making body for projects
RICS supported the independence of the IPC. All but a small number of applications (relating to such areas as National Security or Defence) will be dealt with independently.

Local Member Review Bodies
RICS successfully worked with other professional bodies to ensure the defeat of this proposal that would have seen councillors sitting in appeals on planning decisions of their colleagues.

Community Infrastructure Levy
RICS was successful in having many of our suggested amendments debated in the House of Lords.

RICS believes that the following issues (that had been of concern to RICS) have been satisfactorily addressed through amendments to the Planning Bill:

• Improving certainty in terms of the levy to be charged
• Safeguards against errors and wrongful collection of funds
• Ensuring economic viability is considered when setting the levy
• Need for an independent umpire for disputes/appeals mechanism
• Ensuring factors other than value uplift alone are considered in making the levy.

Compulsory Purchase
RICS successfully sought written commitments from Government on the issue RICS had raised that compulsory purchase would not flow automatically from the granting of planning consent on major projects.

Further information and RICS contact
Dan Cook
RICS Public Affairs Manager
E dcook@rics.org