In what has been described as the ‘Quango bonfire’ another 118 bodies will be merged and 171 ’substantially reformed’.  50 bodies to be affected are within the Environment Department.

The cutting of the Quangos (quasi non-governmental organisations) has been a headline grabber for the UK coalition government since they started their campaigning over a year ago and featured strongly in the Tory manifesto.

The Renewables Advisory Board (RAB) advises the government on a range of renewable energy issues including the economic mechanisms in place for ensuring a healthy renewable energy market place.  The fate of the body joins the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC) although the latter will simply be moved to the Planning Inspectorate.

Some bodies feared to be set for execution have been retained, including Natural England and Ofgem – the UK electricity regulator.

Labour attacked Cabinet Minister Francis Maude saying the cuts could result in more spending rather than less as the coalition government has admitted that many of the bodies and their staff are likely to be re-housed within other organisations.

The statement is one of a series of NPS (National Planning Statements) documents intended to guide the new Infrastructure Planning Committee (IPC) in coming to decisions on large scale infrastructure projects. The statements will set out criteria on national need, benefits and impacts. With the exception of the NPS for airports and nuclear power stations, sites are not identified for specific proposals.

The Renewable Energy NPS applies specifically to biomass and onshore wind energy projects comprising 50 Megawatts + and to offshore wind energy projects, including the substations and new overhead power lines.

The renewable energy supportive NPS will also be a material consideration to be taken into account when authorities decide on projects under 50 Megwatts – (i.e smaller wind farms and biomass plants). The document will overide local planning policy if there is any conflict, for example with regard to new structures in locally protected landscapes.

The statement may concern planning authorities in Wales who have attempted to “refine” wind farm strategic search areas introduced by the Welsh Assembly. The NPS says that in order to give the refined boundaries weight, the IPC should be satisfied this is in accordance with Welsh Assembly guidance.

National landscape and ecological designations continue to be protected with a requirement that the objectives of these designations are not compromised and adverse effects are outweighed by environmental and social benefits.

Offshore wind energy developers will be expected to explain how they have drawn on the Governments strategic environmental assessment of UK waters in making their site selection. According to the NPS, strategic environmental assessment work carried out by the Government will be rolling and a research programme and data collection facility will inform future assessments. Offshore wind developers will need to identify onshore grid connection routes or “corridors” and in some cases the new grid infrastructure may be defined as a nationally significant infrastructure project in its own right.

For onshore wind farms the NPS notes that the technology is likely to continue to be an important contributor towards the UK’s energy needs. The NPS says that the time-limited and non-permanent nature of wind farms should be a relevant consideration when assessing the indirect effects of wind farms on the historic environment, for example the effects of wind farms on the setting of listed buildings or conservation areas. This is particularly helpful given that wind farms are only normally planned for 25 years, whereas historic buildings may have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years, with a continued long life ahead. Wind farms would probably be around for only the blink of the eye of some historic buildings.

According to the list of 11 energy projects in pre-planning compiled by the IPC four are onshore wind farms and one an offshore wind farm.
The progress of these projects will be watched closely by the energy industry.

Hendry wrote to the Department of Climate Change stating that the main concern arising from the current planning system is the inherent delay which has provided no certainty or guaranteed timeframe in which applications are decided. “Whilst we are wholly supportive of the principle of speeding up the process, we remain concerned that the IPC offers no recourse to the public to express their views given that decisions are made by an unelected quango” he said.

“As a result we have proposed that decisions made by the IPC should instead be recommendations to the Secretary of State with its specialist planners transferred to a ‘large projects’ team within the existing Planning Inspectorate”.

“We are very mindful of concerns that the Secretary of State might then sit on decisions, as has happened in the past, and we would therefore place a requirement on the Secretary of State to make a decision within a given timescale – probably similar to that proposed for the IPC. We will publish final details on this and also on the transitional arrangements later in the year.”

Hendry confirmed that some of the proposals made in the Planning Act will be retained and indeed strengthened. The National Policy Statements will be preserved and would be ratified by Parliament, “to give them a greater legitimacy and reduce the scope for judicial reviews” he said.

“We are concerned that the IPC will be quickly bogged down in legal challenges – from judicial reviews in the High Court to challenges in the European Court of Justice. By contrast, Conservative plans for Parliamentary-ratified National Policy Statements will speed up the planning system, whilst reducing the scope for legal challenges. Our judicial system and the ECJ will attach greater weight to a document explicitly endorsed by Parliament.”

Meanwhile IPC Chair Michael Pitt has warned infrastructure developers – including wind energy developers that they must carry out full public consultation before applications are submitted. “They should engage with as wide a variety of organisations as possible” said Pitt.