Improving performance of the NSIP planning process and supporting local authorities
Published 30 August 2022
Applies to England and Wales
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Introduction
Faster, better, greener delivery of major infrastructure is essential to support our economic growth, connectivity between places, essential utilities, energy security and Net Zero. It needs to support our ambitions for levelling up and to enhance and protect the environment. The Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning (NSIP) Development Consent Order (DCO) system is the process by which local people are consulted and development receives consent, ensuring infrastructure is delivered in ways which contribute to our ambitions for levelling up and to enhance and protect the environment. Through the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, the Government will take legal powers to improve this system. We are also announcing funding to ten local authority projects to support innovation and to ensure the needs of local communities are better reflected in the process. Our amendments to the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill will, when enacted, enable:
Fast track consenting
A power which will enable the relevant consenting department Secretary of State to set a shorter statutory timeframe for a DCO examination. This enables the establishment of a fast-track consenting route for cases where quality standards are met. In the British Energy Security Strategy, the government committed to a range of measures to reduce consent time for Offshore Wind Projects from up to 4 years down to 1 year. The government will consult on quality criteria, underlying regulations and guidance changes, later this year. This amendment will be laid on 30 August 2022 for debate at Commons Committee stage of the Bill.
Faster post-consent changes
A power for the Secretary of State to set secondary legislation relating to the decision-making process associated with Non-Material Change (NMC) applications. At present, changes to consents which are deemed non-material can take up to 16 months to be determined and sometimes cause significant delays to delivery. This legislation will enable government to develop and pilot an improved, faster approach, bringing in statutory timeframes if necessary. This amendment will be laid on 30 August 2022 for debate at Commons Committee stage of the Bill.
Charging developers for expert input
Enabling powers so that government agencies which provide technical expert advice on DCO applications will be able to charge developers for their NSIP services, across the statutory and non-statutory parts of the process. Capacity issues in key statutory agencies can create delay. The government will consult on our approach to implementing charging frameworks later this year. This amendment will be published for consideration at Commons Report stage of the Bill.
Innovation and capacity building for local authorities affected by NSIPs
Local Authorities play an essential role in the NSIP process. They represent the needs and views of local people, deliver local impact reports, work with developers to ensure development will benefit local people and economies, ensure plans are integrated with local infrastructure, and are often responsible for monitoring compliance with planning requirements once development begins. Through the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Innovation and Capacity fund, we are funding 10 projects in local authorities which will be particularly affected by applications for major transport, energy and water schemes over the next year. Following a fair and competitive tender process, the following local authorities were successful in securing funding to explore a range of ways of improving the process:
1. Cambridgeshire County Council
2. Crawley Borough Council
3. Cumbria County Council
4. Eden District Council
5. Essex County Council
6. Hinkley and Bosworth Borough Council
7. Norfolk County Council
8. Selby District Council and North Yorkshire County Council (joint bid)
9. Somerset County Council
10. Suffolk County Council, on behalf of the district and county councils in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire
A full list of the project aims, local authorities involved, infrastructure sectors covered, and funding amount can be found in the Further details of successful bids section below.
Wider improvement to the Development Consent Order process
The NSIP planning system was created under the Planning Act 2008, to establish statutory timescales and a ‘one stop shop’ DCO process for major infrastructure, with decisions being made by the relevant Secretary of State (for Energy, Transport, Environment or Levelling Up). Since its first decision in 2011, the system has considered 113 major transport, energy, and wastewater infrastructure projects. Prior to the NSIP system major infrastructure projects took significantly more time to go through the planning process, for example Sizewell B nuclear power station took 7 years to be consented. In comparison Norfolk Boreas, which was consented in 2021, took 2 and a half years from application submission to its DCO being granted.
In the National Infrastructure Strategy (2020) (NIS) the government committed to a cross-government NSIP Reform Programme with the ambition to speed up timescales by up to 50% for some projects entering the system from September 2023. In 2021, we conducted an operational review of the NSIP process, hearing from over 130 users and groups about potential for improvement. We also invested in project acceleration pilots and workshops to explore how processes could be improved. Responses came from a range of perspectives including local authorities, community groups, promoters of infrastructure, statutory consultees, environmental non-governmental organisations, professional bodies and practitioners with a range of expertise.
The measures set out above are key steps towards improvement of the performance of the DCO system. They will allow projects submitting their applications from September 2023, to benefit from a fast-track route if the qualifying criteria being developed are met. They will ensure the system has the resilience to respond to the increasing pipeline of major infrastructure projects while delivering faster consenting for some projects without compromising on environmental or community outcomes. The Nationally Significant Infrastructure Planning Reform Programme is also taking forward several other actions to improve the system, including reviews of the Energy and National Networks National Policy Statements. Work to create a new system of Environmental Outcome Reports which will streamline and improve transparency of environmental assessment is also being taken forward through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill. The government intends to publish a full NSIP Reform Action Plan, as well as consultations on national policy statements and on further regulatory and guidance changes to improve the operation of the system, over the coming months.
Further details of successful bids
Applicant(s): Somerset County Council, South Somerset District Council, Somerset West and Taunton
Project type: Innovation through resourcing
Sector: Transport
NSIP(s): A358 Taunton to Southfields
Funding offered: £87,500
Summary of project: Governance project which embeds a 3-stage verification and mediation process to save time and resource for local authorities, the applicant and Planning Inspectorate. Structure includes a Strategic Review Group to mediate between individual authorities and the applicant and a working group to provide operational oversight of the workstreams.
Applicant(s): Cumbria County Council
Project type: Innovation through resourcing
Sector: Transport
NSIP(s): A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project
Funding offered: £60,000
Summary of project: Contributing to speed and green: To enable the council to resource innovative, focused approaches to the planning and green aspects of the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine project and to prepare a “guide-book” for other local authorities. This will build on a series of work packages developed through the pre-application stages of the project aimed at adding value to the NSIP application process including:
- Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG)
- flood alleviation and design principles for drainage and flood risk
- use of local materials to enhance landscape
Legacy and community benefits including re-use of construction compounds, worker accommodation strategy, and economic opportunity (e.g. skills and supply chain).
Applicant(s): Essex County Council
Project type: Capacity
Sector: Energy
NSIP(s): Bramford to Twinstead Power Connection, Longfield Solar Farm
Funding offered: £90,000
Summary of project: Embedding project management in process through use of a dedicated project manager and a digital project management tool which helps Essex County Council with:
- planning and tracking projects
- team resource management
- collaboration in real time
- assigning key tasks and deadlines
- uploading information, responses, minutes, etc
- project progress updates
- PPA budget management and invoicing
Applicant(s): Suffolk County Council, on behalf of the district and county councils in Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire
Project type: Innovation through tools (digital)
Sector: Water, transport and energy
NSIP(s): Several NSIPs across the East of England
Funding offered: £45,000
Summary of project: To create a virtual NSIP Centre of Excellence for the Eastern Region which includes:
- setting up and run a regional virtual continuous professional development programme to upskill staff in topics relevant to the NSIP process
- offering virtual seminars for councillors of the local authorities to explain the processes and key points of political interface within the process
- sharing lessons learnt between local authorities within the region
- sharing useful tools, templates, information about e.g. environmental consultants used
- offering peer reviews for NSIP projects to other local authorities within the region
Applicant(s): Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council
Project type: Innovation through resourcing
Sector: Transport
NSIP(s): Hinckley national Rail Freight Interchange
Funding offered: £90,000
Summary of project: To engage a Capacity and Programme Board with Senior Officers at Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council which facilitates joint working between relevant authorities and promotors and supports outcomes including drafting of program and cost profiles, writing technical guidance notes and improving approaches to joint working on DCOs.
Applicant(s): Eden District Council
Project type: Innovation through resourcing
Sector: Transport
NSIP(s): A66 Northern Trans-Pennine Project
Funding offered: £60,000
Summary of project: Contributing to speed and green: The innovative approach National Highways are adopting involves developing a draft Environmental Management Plan (with local authority involvement/engagement and consultation) during the examination of the A66 Northern Trans-Pennine project. This takes work on detailed scheme design addressing many of the key areas beyond the formal points local authority of engagement in the DCO process and after the Adequacy of Consultation and Local Impact Report submission. Eden District Council wishes to support and test the innovations proposed to confirm potential timesaving approach.
Applicant(s): Selby District Council & North Yorkshire County Council
Project type: Innovation through tools
Sector: Energy
NSIP(s): Helios Renewable Energy Project, Yorkshire GREEN, Drax Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage Project, Humber Low Carbon Pipelines
Funding offered: £52,000
Summary of project: Development of a multi-disciplinary environmental framework which helps bring forward multiple NSIPs in a single location through developing a framework which sets out the local authority requirements for submitting a DCO including landscape, biodiversity, environmental health and heritage scheme for the area which could be used by the promotor, local authority and Planning Inspectorate at application and examination stage. Project includes setting out the policy context, design principles, relationship with Environmental Impact Assessment environmental baseline (including sensitivity mapping for landscape and historic environment), sources of information, tools and methods of assessment (including cumulative impact), opportunities for mitigation and enhancement, monitoring environmental effects.
Applicant(s): Cambridgeshire County Council
Project type: Innovation through resourcing
Sector: Transport
NSIP(s): East West rail – Bedford to Cambridge and Western Improvements
Funding offered: £90,000
Summary of project: To develop a shared model/centre of excellence for managing NSIPs through collaboration with others, use of PMO resource and a Knowledge Centre.
Applicant(s): Crawley Borough Council (on behalf of several authorities)
Project type: Innovation through resourcing
Sector: Transport
NSIP(s): Gatwick Airport Northern Runway
Funding offered: £90,000
Summary of project: Funding for consultants to aid in development of a virtual network of individuals with experience in particular schemes (airports) and provides access for multiple authorities to specialist external advice and better NSIP coordination.
Applicant(s): Norfolk County Council
Project type: Innovation through tools (digital)
Sector: Energy
NSIP(s): Extension to Sheringham Shoal and Dudgeon Wind Farms, Fens Reservoir Project, East Anglia GREEN, Hornsea Project Three, Norfolk Vanguard, Norfolk Boreas and several road schemes
Funding offered: £90,000
Summary of project: Funding to develop and build a virtual workflow management system or ‘dashboard’ which develops Sharepoint technology to log information about NSIPs including timelines, deadlines, developer contacts and meetings which is accessible by local authorities and promotors for interactive working.