Transport Select Committee urges DfT to redraft planning policy statements to align with net zero objectives
The Transport Select Committee has criticised the DfT’s planned revision of the National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS) for not giving sufficient weight to Net Zero. The Committee has published its analysis of the government’s proposals to revamp planning policies for nationally significant road and rail infrastructure projects (NSIPs). They urged ministers to redraft sections that would be used to determine whether major new projects are compatible with net zero legislation, based on the carbon emissions that would be produced during and after their construction. In its current form, the NNNPS would not cut emissions in live with decarbonisation targets. The Committee also made recommendations on the way the DfT looks at different options for projects, how to make its decision-making more transparent, and that calculations of future demand should be more transparent. It proposes that there should be an over-arching Transport NPS, including airports, which would consider new infrastructure, its carbon emissions and impact on sites of biodiversity or geological interest.
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Transport Select Committee urges DfT to redraft planning policy statements to align with net zero objectives
20 OCT, 2023
BY THOMAS JOHNSON (New Civil Engineer)
The Transport Select Committee has criticised the Department for Transport’s (DfT’s) planned revision of the National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS) for not giving sufficient weight to Net Zero.
The Transport Select Committee has published its analysis of the government’s proposals to revamp planning policies for nationally significant road and rail infrastructure projects.
In its report, the cross-party Transport Select Committee urged ministers to redraft sections that would be used to determine whether major new projects are compatible with net zero legislation, based on the carbon emissions that would be produced during and after their construction.
The government is proposing to revise the NNNPS to avoid legal challenges that have delayed new projects by clarifying how planning policies would interact with climate legislation. It released its draft revised NNNPS in March to bring it in line with recent decarbonisation and environment policies.
The Transport Select Committee has now warned that the draft NNNPS wouldn’t achieve this in its current form.
It has further made recommendations on the way the DfT looks at different options for projects and road-traffic demand forecasts, and how to make its decision-making more transparent.
The committee argued the department is overly led by a “predict and provide” approach, where it seeks to deliver new road projects based on forecasts that congestion and demand from motorists will increase.
It said there is insufficient transparency on how these demand calculations are made, or whether DfT models alternative options such as rail connections, and if doing so would reduce or reverse those increases in demand for road transport that are forecast. The committee believes exploring alternative options would ensure the draft NNNPS is consistent with goals to cut emissions.
Transport committee chair Iain Stewart MP said: “Flaws in the current NNNPS are partly to blame for the perennial problem of why major infrastructure projects become delayed by legal challenges, so there is a lot riding on this work to produce a new set of planning policies.
“But a number of witnesses, including some who themselves launched legal challenges against such projects, told us the current draft won’t provide the legal certainty that DfT needs. One of the government’s objectives in revising the NNNPS is to balance the net zero goals with infrastructure projects that could increase greenhouse gas emissions.
“Given the concerns we heard, we urge the government to amend the draft NNNPS to provide a definition of residual emissions and to state explicitly its understanding of the legal precedent for permitting major infrastructure schemes which result in increases in emissions.
“The draft NNNPS should also promote more scrutiny of the way the government examines the options for building new road or rail schemes, and shows the evidence behind its forecasts that more congestion is inevitable if we don’t build more motorways and A roads.”
Among the committee’s proposals was that the government should introduce five-year fixed-term reviews for the NNNPS, “with a shorter term where significant policy or need change warrants it.”
It also proposed the government should consider restructuring the National Policy Statements for transport into one over-arching Transport NPS, which covers National Networks, airports and ports. This would be used for determining new infrastructure for road, rail, strategic rail freight interchanges, ports, and airports. Ministers should then provide a clear rationale if they decide not to.
The committee also noted that the draft NNNPS does not include clause 5.29 of the current NNNPS. This requires the Secretary of State to have regard for measures that mitigate a new development’s harms to sites of biodiversity or geological interest. The committee says the draft NNNPS should be amended to include Clause 5.29.
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