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This is entry number 197, first published on 13 December 2010,
of a blog on the implementation of the Planning Act 2008. Click here for a link to the whole blog. If you would like to
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click here.
Today's entry reports on the publication of the Localism
Bill.
The long-awaited Localism Bill is finally revealed today. After
at least two false starts, the Bill appears on today's
Parliamentary Order of Business as having its first reading today.
Analysis of the Bill as it affects infrastructure planning will
follow tomorrow.
Here is the 'long title' of the Bill. Normally given as
a continuous sentence, I have formatted it for easier reading:
The Bill will be accompanied by other documents, but it is on
its own at the moment. The main one is 'explanatory notes',
which explain the purpose and effect each clause of the Bill in
non-technical language. Other documents are a 'delegated powers
memorandum', which sets out the powers contained in the Bill
that allow the government to legislate by order, and an 'impact
assessment', which sets out the financial and environmental
costs and benefits of the Bill.
There was some debate as to whether the provisions of the Bill
abolishing regional strategies would require, or at least undergo,
Strategic Environmental Assessment, where their environmental
effects are assessed and published in an 'environmental
report', so it will be interesting to see whether one is
published either separately or as part of the impact
assessment.
Contents of Bill
The Bill will be analysed in tomorrow's blog entry, but here
are the contents of the background note mentioned above:
right to veto excessive council tax rises
community right to challenge [council service provision]
community right to buy [council assets]
local referendums
general power of competence
local authority governance [return to committee system
option]
directly elected mayors
predetermination [rules relaxed for councillors]
standards board [abolished]
pay accountability [of senior officers]
scrapping bin taxes
abolition of regional strategies
community infrastructure levy reforms
local plan reform
neighbourhood planning
community right to build [without planning permission following
a referendum]
duty to cooperate [between councils]
pre-application consultation [on large developments]
enforcement [reforms, e.g. appealing and reapplying
simultaneously to be forbidden]
abolition of Infrastructure Planning Commission
Parliamentary vote on National Policy Statements
social housing allocations reform
reform of homelessness legislation
social housing tenure reform
reform of council housing finance
national homeswap scheme
reform of social housing regulation
facilitating moves out of the social rented sector
home information packs [abolished]
London governance changes
Procedure
The 'first reading' is the first stage of the passage of
a Bill through each House of Parliament and merely represents the
publication of the Bill - no debate or vote takes place. Bills can
start in either House, and are shared between them to spread the
Parliamentary load. Which House to start in was apparently one of
the contributors to the delay of the publication of the Bill, but
the Commons has been settled upon.
The next stage is the 'second reading', which does
involve a debate and a vote on whether the Bill should proceed
further. The debate is likely to take a whole day on the floor of
the House of Commons. Normally, the second reading does not take
place until at least two weekends have passed since the first
reading, to give MPs time to consider the text of the Bill. Given
that the Commons rises for the Christmas adjournment on 22
December, this means that the second reading will not take place
until next year. The Commons returns on 10 January 2011.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general
guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought
about your specific circumstances.
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