Dear NIPA Member,

Yesterday the Government published proposals to remove the statutory consultation obligations relating to Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects from the Planning Act 2008.

I am writing to you as chair of the NIPA Board to recognise that this is a potentially significant change in the context of the work you do, and that you may have views on what this means for how the NSIP process should successfully operate. It is also a further step in the progress of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill as part of the on-going planning and infrastructure reform work in Government, and provides an additional opportunity for NIPA to engage with Government.

I hope the following details are helpful in terms of what NIPA proposes to do for members as part of this on-going reform work in Government, particularly as NIPA has a wide membership base. Given this breadth, NIPA will not be publishing a view or views at this point in time, beyond this letter.

Instead, we are going to enable discussion and consideration, listen to members and invite Government officials to participate in the coming days and weeks. This includes the opportunity for Board members and Council members to share their initial reflections on the proposals and recommendations for engaging members at upcoming Board and Council meetings on Monday 28 April.

My reading of the proposals is that the Government is still wholly committed to effective consultation and engagement leading to good quality projects whose DCO applications can be determined within the statutory timeframes. The Government’s proposals indicate that in its view, the NSIP process itself, in particular its statutory provisions for pre-application consultation, was designed for a different context and are not now driving the collaborative frontloading originally envisaged by the Act. Therefore, it is looking to different measures to drive change in the system in order to achieve its published Missions and its target in its Plan for Change to achieve 150 major infrastructure decisions in this Parliament.

My personal experience across public sector policy and delivery, in consultancy and as a developer is that no major project can genuinely deliver the outcomes needed without being able to harness, through effective engagement, the expertise and insights of a wide range of people, from communities to technical specialists. This is also why NIPA exists, because we know that collaboration with purpose is vital.

Our challenge as NIPA remains what it has always been – to find the most effective ways to plan for and deliver the critical national infrastructure that we need, and to deliver it where we need it and when we need it. This is an opportunity for us to look afresh at how we enable effective engagement that delivers multiple positive outcomes from each project that goes through the NSIP process.

So, to kick start our work, I will be chairing a NIPA Matters event soon to explore the opportunities and implications arising from these proposals. A date will be confirmed shortly and MHCLG officials have very kindly agreed to participate. In the meantime, I will work with the NIPA Leadership team on further activities specific to these proposals and we will continue to engage constructively with the Government as the Bill progresses through Parliament.

Please do feel free to reach out to me and other members of the NIPA leadership team if you have views or ideas you wish to share in the meantime or would like tabled for discussion at the Board or Council meetings on Monday 28^th. You can write to us at info@nipa-uk.org , or contact me via LinkedIn.

Best wishes,

Tom Carpen

NIPA Board Chair