"Special measures" criteria for local authorities to be subject of parliamentary process

The amendment to the Bill requires that the criteria to be applied in designating and revoking designation of a local planning authority be the subject of a Parliamentary process and that the criteria are approved by both Houses of Parliament.

"Designation is no trivial matter. It represents a considerable shift in process because it removes a democratically elected council's role of having the first engagement with the planning process," said Lord McKenzie of Luton during a debate in the House of Lords.

The Government launched a consultation in November, setting out proposed speed and quality thresholds for designating local authorities as "poorly performing" under the Bill. This included that a local authority would be designated if it determined 30% or fewer major applications within the statutory period or if more than 20% of major decisions were overturned on appeal.

Lord McKenzie said that the Lords had received a summary of the consultation responses, which revealed that less than half of the respondents supported the speed and quality approach.

Only about a quarter of respondents expressed support for quality being assessed as the proportion of major decisions being overturned on appeal and less than half agreed with the 30% and 20% formulation, Lord McKenzie said.

The Bill has also been amended to ensure that applications for major developments only can be submitted to PINS and that regulations will prescribe what "major development" means.

"We intend to use the existing definition found in secondary legislation; for example, 10 houses or more or an equivalent amount of commercial space," said Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Baroness Hanham during the debate.