Planning Act 2008 (Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects) (Electric Lines) Order 2013

Lord Grantchester Excerpts

Tuesday 4th June 2013 Grand Committee

[Lord Grantchester]

I thank the Minister for her explanation of the order. I may be on safe ground when I say to her that I will not contest it. I agree with her explanation that the order is merely a fine-tuning of the planning process for overground lines of 132 kilovolts or greater which are less than two kilometres in length. Underground electricity lines are not required to have development consent.

Furthermore, the order does not remove any lines from planning; it merely transfers installations from falling within the Planning Act 2008 to being assessed under Section 37 of the Electricity Act 1989. The Explanatory Memorandum states that approximately 21 applications for consent for electric lines at 132 kilovolts or greater and 17%, or 15 in number, are for projects of lengths of under two kilometres. The Minister’s department considers that lines of under two kilometres should not normally be considered to be national infrastructure projects. The memorandum then speaks admirably concerning the disproportionate nature of the provisions that then fall due. However, is the Minister confident that simply assessing projects on the basis of length is enough to assess whether significant, albeit nationally significant, issues will not come into play? I realise that a number of respondents to the consultation argued for excluding any line under 15 kilometres in length. Can the Minister clarify whether among the responses to the consultation there were any environmental implications, bearing in mind that Article 2(b) of the order inserts new subsection (3A), which provides that subsection (3)(ab)(ii) does not apply where part of the line is in a SSSI or a European site?