Source · Select Committees · Energy Security and Net Zero Committee
Recommendation 9
9
Rejected
Recognise regional capacities and optimal areas for energy technologies as material considerations in NPS.
Conclusion
We acknowledge the concern that strategic plans should not predetermine the outcome of any application for development consent. However, neither should the planning system be blind to the very existence of such plans and, most importantly, to their possible impact on the prospects of a project securing a grid connection. It would undermine the purpose of strategic plans if the Secretary of State were unable to take them into account in the planning balance. • The National Policy Statements should clearly recognise, as a material consideration, the regional and zonal capacities for different technologies specified in the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan and the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan. • The National Policy Statements should clearly recognise, as a material consideration, the optimal areas for different technologies identified in the Strategic Spatial Energy Plan. (Recommendation, Paragraph 32)
Government Response Summary
The government rejects making regional/zonal capacities and optimal areas explicit material considerations in the planning system, stating these should be incentivised through different mechanisms and such ranges have been removed from NPSs.
Government Response
Rejected
HM Government
Rejected
Government does not intend for the planning system to decide where infrastructure should be built. Regional and zonal capacities established in the Clean Power Action Plan and the SSEP should be incentivised through different mechanisms. The Examining Authority should be examining applications on their merits as developments and a degree of discretion needs to be exercised as to what facets of other policies might be a material consideration in any given case. Clean Power 2030 is already a consideration in the NPSs through the Critical National Priority infrastructure policy. Some responses to the NPS consultation were concerned that setting out the technology capacities in the Clean Power Action Plan in the NPSs could result in the ranges being seen as ‘caps’. As this is not the policy intention, the ranges have been removed from NPSs. The reference to SSEP in the NPS will ensure that it is accorded weight in the planning system once it is endorsed by all relevant governments.