Revocation of Regional Spatial Strategies delayed due to landmark EU ruling

In a written Ministerial Statement, Communities Minister Baroness Hanham said that a set of updated reports would now be published for an additional period of consultation.

"Baroness Hanham is right to ensure that the final abolition of RSS is 'meticulously' handled, as she put it, as the last thing we need is another failed attempt at revocation," said Richard Ford, a planning expert at Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com.

The Government announced its intention to revoke RSS in the 2010 general election and legislated to do this in the Localism Act 2011. But following a ruling by the ECJ the Government has decided to conduct further assessments on the environmental effects of revoking each strategy.

"The Strategic Environmental Assessment process is set out in an EU Directive (Directive 2001/42/EC). In March 2012, the European Court of Justice issued a significant ruling on the interpretation and application of the Directive," said Baroness Hanham.

"Following the decision of the European Court of Justice, in the light of planning policy and legislation that have been put in place since January 2012, in light of the earlier consultation responses, and in order to be meticulous in observing the requirements of the Directive, the Government is now updating the environmental reports and undertaking additional consultation," she said.

In the ECJ ruling neighbourhood committee federation the Inter-Environment Bruxelles (IEB) challenged an order by a Belgium regional authority that repealed parts of the Brussels planning code. IEB argued that the move was incompatible with the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive because a study of its environmental impact had not been made by the regional authority.

Baroness Hanham said that the proposed revocation of the RSS may be regarded as a material consideration by decision makers when determining planning applications and appeals. However Pinsent Masons's Ford said that the weight attached to the proposed revocation of the RSS varies between local planning authorities.

"There are still widespread differences in the approach of local planning authorities to the weight they are giving to the intention to revoke. This continues to make life difficult for both developers and local planning authorities," said Ford.

"However, whilst there is a lot of chomping at the bit for the revocation to happen to improve certainty, it needs to be done properly and the benefit is that there is clearly a further last gasp opportunity for developers to take advantage of continued RSS policy where that favours their position," he said.

The Government has already published the first of the updated environmental reports for the proposed revocation of the East of England RSS. It "builds on and is intended to supersede the previous report" and will be open for consultation for eight weeks, said Baroness Hanham.

DCLG will publish updated environmental reports relating to the proposals on each of the other RSS, which will each be subject to an eight week consultation.