Planning and Infrastructure Bill: impact assessment - RPC opinion (green-rated)
Regulatory Policy Committee opinion on the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s impact assessment (IA) in respect of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill.
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The Bill makes provision about: town and country planning; a scheme, administered by Natural England, for a nature restoration levy payable by developers; development corporations; the compulsory purchase of land; environmental outcomes reports.
The proposals are intended to reduce barriers and costs to business (primarily developers). The largest direct impact monetised in the IA is the reduction in costs associated with delays in the planning system. Several significant indirect impacts are also monetised (including constraint cost savings relating to reforms of electricity infrastructure consenting).
The RPC’s overall rating (green) is based on individual IAs for 14 regulatory provisions in the Bill. In addition, the department has produced a summary IA that provides overarching discussion in relation to rationale, the regulatory scorecard and monitoring and evaluation plans, as well as a brief discussion of measures that are not regulatory provisions. The IA estimates a net present social value of £3.2 billion for the proposals in the Bill that are regulatory provisions; a business net present value of £2.1 billion and an equivalent annual net direct cost to business of -£273 million.
As originally submitted, some individual IAs were not fit for purpose. The department has now clearly identified the problems under consideration in detail, and consistently considered a wider range of options across all proposals. Sufficient quantitative and qualitative appraisal is undertaken to identify the preferred way forward, with the scorecard presenting a summary of the impacts on business, households and society.