Regulations & policy commentary: Planning and energy

There seems to be a widespread view across all the political parties that the planning system in this country is not working efficiently and is delaying developments that the country urgently needs to improve its economic competitiveness.

Now that there has been time to reflect on the latest Planning White Paper, the view seems to be that, if implemented, it will address some, but not all, of the problems that planning is causing for those involved with economic development.

Proposals for an Infrastructure Planning Commission have to be welcomed in order to avoid the excessive delays and costs that accompanied the planning application for Heathrow T5 and other major schemes of that scale. At the other end of the spectrum, removing minor householder applications from the system has to be equally welcomed in order to release staff to handle more important applications.

What is not clear, however, is how the new proposals will help those applications that fall between these two extremes - the quarry extension, the new factory development, or the major housing scheme. The government has proposed a new Planning Policy Statement on Economic Development, but until that is published and we see that there is a real prospect of local authorities dealing with such applications much more quickly and more consistently, most of the construction industry will see little benefit in the short-term from yet another attempt to make our planning system more efficient.

Indeed, the prospect of a new Planning Gain Supplement (on which the White Paper was strangely silent) promises only to make the system more confusing and expensive.

England's Waste Strategy

The government's revised Waste Strategy for England was published on 24 May 2007. Much of the 124-page report is inevitably focused on municipal waste, although construction, demolition and excavation waste is given considerable prominence given its status as the source of the largest amount of waste going to landfill. Ironically, the Landfill Tax, which is the biggest driver of reduction of waste to landfill, is not part of the strategy.

Construction has its own Annex (3c) in which three major targets are identified:

The construction industry to halve the amount of construction, demolition and excavation waste to landfill by 2012 as a result of waste reduction, re-use and recycling.

For construction clients to include contractual requirements for the measurement and improvement of materials resource efficiency in one-half of construction projects in England worth more than £1m in value by 2009.

The government to achieve waste-neutral construction in its major construction projects by 2012.

These targets are intended to resonate with those expected to appear later in the year in the government's Sustainable Construction Strategy.

A major new facet of the strategy is the consideration of the carbon aspects of waste, with the view that waste reduction and local re-use will carry significant carbon benefits.

In terms of mechanisms for delivery, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has set up a new products and materials unit to improve the environmental performance of products throughout their lifecycle, and will establish a new National Waste Stakeholder group. The Business Resource Efficiency and Waste programme delivery partners - such as WRAP and Envirowise - will continue to play a key role in implementation of the waste policies and targets.