The forthcoming National Policy Statements will not be assessed for carbon and the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) is not required to consider climate change in its decisions. So how will we meet carbon reduction targets if major infrastructure is built without adequate consideration of the consequences for carbon? Local planning authorities will need to produce impact assessments for applications being handled by the IPC. How will this be funded and what support will planners have in preparing such assessments? The Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum on Friday raised more questions than it answered.
The topic was The implementation and impact of the Planning Act 2008 and the speakers and audience focussed on the NPSs, the IPC and climate change. To be fair, Sir Michael Pitt (Chair of the IPC) and Richard McCarthy (Director General, Housing and Planning, DCLG) had responses to the above questions, some of which were more convincing than others. But they weren’t nearly as convincing as Hugh Ellis’s characteristically blunt thrashing of the regime. Continue reading “Talk is cheap”