Is ‘Have Your Say’ going away?

Recently, the Government announced plans to scrap statutory requirements for pre-application consultation on NSIPs. The proposals would strike most of the requirements for consultation, leaving just the provisions to consult with some classes of landowners, provide notice to PINS, and publish notices in local and national papers. 

At first blush – this looks like the end of consultation for NSIPs; however, the statement makes it clear that consultation will still be expected and that some sort of adequacy of consultation check will still exist. The details will all be made clear in upcoming guidance, developed through consultation this summer. Though the Government is hoping for Royal Assent on the Planning and Infrastructure Bill this summer (which seems ambitious), the policy changes are not likely to come into force before the end of the year. 

This leaves much of the industry scratching our heads on just what the guidance will say. If it is too prescriptive, it may result in no change to the current system, wasting time and money on excessive consultation. If it is too ambiguous, it may result in developers skipping consultation and having their projects fail to achieve acceptance or have a nightmare examination period filled with excess relevant reps and issues that should have been resolved prior to submission. 

The guidance sweet-spot will ensure that developers have just enough direction to know what is needed, but enough room to allow for meaningful consultation that leads to real improvements in the project, in a way that is flexible to various project nuances and changing situations.

I’ve spent the last week reflecting on what good consultation is – and realised that all the examples that came to mind were outside of statutory requirements. For example, for one solar farm, we offered in-person meetings for near neighbours. One woman took us up on the offer, and after an hour answering questions over a cup of tea at her kitchen table, she invited us to go upstairs to her bedroom to sit at the foot of her bed to see the lovely view she woke up to daily. Only by sitting there could we really understand what we needed to do to update the design to protect the view she cared about (which we did). For another project that was receiving a large amount of community opposition, we held a series of meetings with local MPs to share our thinking in how we would adapt the masterplan and get their feedback on whether they felt it would do enough to address the community’s key concerns. By targeting key individuals who can share really precise feedback, as well as elected officials who can have a broader view – we were able to make meaningful changes to the project design and ultimately result in better projects. 

If the guidance is drafted well, it will protect exactly these types of meaningful consultation activities that lead to better developments, while eliminating the exhaustive requirements that cause consultation fatigue with consultees, exasperate and enrage local communities and waste time and money for developers. This is an exciting opportunity to reconsider what consultation should be without the tick-box requirements.  Instead of reading this news as the end of consultation, I think we can be confident that good consultation is still alive and well.