Events

EVENT:

The new Government and the Localism Bill will transform the way in which infrastructure is planned for.

This conference will examine the UK’s need for infrastructure and look at how this can be delivered through both the reformed planning process for major infrastructure projects and the new localism agenda.

Regional Spatial Strategies have been effectively abolished since Eric Pickles’ letter of 6^th July 2010 with local planning authorities free to review their LDFs in light of this. Regional Spatial Strategies played an important role in establishing need and infrastructure priorities at a regional level. These infrastructure priorities will now need to be promoted through the soon to be established Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

For Nationally Significant Infrastructure projects the process set up through the Planning Act 2008 is also about to change with the IPC set to be abolished in April 2012. A revised route map for implementing the Planning Act 2008 is expected to be published very shortly. The draft National Policy Statements are due to be published again for consultation before being ratified in Parliament and a National Planning Framework is expected to be published very shortly.

Perhaps most importantly of all the localism agenda will mean that getting projects into local plans at an early stage and the gaining of community support through collaborative planning and consultation is essential.