Fifth Delegated Legislation Committee — hearing of 30 June 2026: transcript & video

00:00 - 00:10

Speaker 1

The draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026. I call the Minister to move the motion.

00:10 - 02:31

Speaker 2

Thank you, Sir Desmond, it's a pleasure to serve with you in the chair. I beg to move that the committee has considered the draft Town and Country Planning (Discharge of Local Planning Authority Functions) (England) Regulations 2026, which were laid before the House on the 1st of June, and following a minor correction, relaid on the 8th of June. In considering this instrument today, Sir Desmond, we're not debating the principle of modernising planning committees. The enabling powers for these regulations are contained in the Planning and Infrastructure Act, which was subject to extensive scrutiny by both Houses and approved by them. However, before I turn to the detail of the regulations before us, I think it is important to set out the extensive consultation and engagement that we have undertaken on these measures.

As members of the committee may recall, the commitment to improve local planning decision-making by modernising planning committees was made in the King's Speech 2024. Following that announcement, we published a planning reform working paper on planning committees that set out a range of proposals, including three options in respect of a national scheme of delegation designed to bring greater standardisation over the operation of committees and give greater certainty to applicants. Taking into account the valuable feedback we received to that working paper, three measures were introduced through the Planning and Infrastructure Act. The first gives a new power to the Secretary of State to set out which planning functions should be delegated to planning officers for a decision and which should instead go to a planning committee or subcommittee. The second gives a new power to the Secretary of State to control the size and composition of planning committees.

The third imposes a new requirement for members of planning committees to be trained and certified in key elements of planning law and policy. During the course of the Act's progress, we undertook a public consultation on detailed proposals in respect of those three measures. Our response to that consultation committed the government to introduce through regulations a two-tier national scheme of delegation, to set a maximum cap for planning committees of 13 members, and to undertake further stakeholder engagement with a view to designing a creditable and cost-effective system for training committee members. As required by the Act, a further statutory consultation on the draft regulations for the national scheme of delegation and cap on committee size and associated guidance was undertaken earlier this year. The government response confirmed that some changes would be made to the regulations as a result of feedback received, including imposing a size threshold in relation to reserved matters applications, which will determine whether they are in schedule 1 or 2.

The rest of the transcript is for Pro customers

Unlock the full transcript, chat, and every analysis feature with Polyfact Pro.

The video itself stays free to watch, in full, no account needed.