Infrastructure Bill
6 Jun 2014 03:54 PM
The proposed bill would
improve how we fund, plan, manage and maintain our national
infrastructure.
The Infrastructure Bill would
provide a £2.6 billion boost to the economy over the next 10 years
by:
- improving the funding and
management of our major roads
- streamlining the planning
process for major projects
- protecting our infrastructure
from invasive plants and animals
- supporting house
building
- making it easier and cheaper to
register land and property
- helping communities become
stakeholders in renewable electricity projects
The bill and
its supporting documents are on the Parliament
website.
The main elements of the bill
are:
Roads
The bill would turn the Highways
Agency into a government-owned company. It would also provide for
stable, long term funding for national strategic road infrastructure projects,
to create and repair the motorways and major A routes that support the economy.
It would create units within Passenger
Focus and the Office of Rail
Regulation to represent the interests of road users and to monitor the
company’s performance. The response to consultation on these measures was
published in April 2014. We have conducted an impact assessment on these measures and considered thecase for the
creation of an arms-length body.
Invasive non-native
species
The bill would provide more
power to control the invasive, non-native species that pose serious threats to
biodiversity, the water environment and infrastructure. This was one of the
measures looked at by the Law
Commission consultation paper on wildlife law in 2012, and theirsubsequent
report of February 2014.
Nationally significant
infrastructure projects
The bill would simplify and
speed up measures introduced in the Planning Act
2008 for handling minor changes to existing planning permissions for
major projects. It would also simplify the processes for more significant
changes.
The bill would allow the
examining authority, a group of inspectors who consider major applications, to
be appointed immediately after an application has been accepted. It would also
allow the panel to comprise 2 inspectors, speeding up the process and saving
money.
More details can be found in
the consultation on these
measures of nationally significant infrastructure
planning.
Deemed discharge for certain
planning conditions
The bill would allow certain
types of planning conditions to be regarded as discharged if a local planning
authority has not notified the applicant of their decision within a prescribed
time period. This will reduce unnecessary delay and costs. A consultation on
the detailed operation of this proposal will be published
shortly.
Public sector land
assets
The bill would permit land to be
transferred directly from arms-length bodies to the Homes and Communities
Agency (HCA). This would reduce bureaucracy, manage land more
effectively, and get more homes built.
The bill would make sure that
future purchasers of land owned by HCA and the Greater London
Authority (GLA) will be able to develop and use land without being
affected by easements and other rights and restrictions suspended by the
agency. Sometimes land owned by HCA and GLA has easements
or rights and restrictions from its previous use. At the momentHCA and
the GLA can suspend these, but not pass that suspension on. The bill
would make sure that purchasers of this land would also benefit from the
suspension.
Land Registry
The bill would also
allow Land Registry to
take on statutory responsibility for the Local Land Charges register and an
extension of powers would also allow Land Registry to play a wider role in the
property market. Consultation on these measures took place between January and
March 2014.
Energy
The bill would also give
communities the right to buy a stake in their local renewable electricity
scheme – the community electricity right – so that they can own a
greater share of the financial benefits.