Proposals in the Planning Bill must not be allowed to interfere with councils' place-shaping role, the LGA has claimed. Speaking as communities minister, Hazel Blears, kicked-off the Planning Bill this week, the LGA's Paul Bettison said the planned independent commission to decide on major infrastructure projects must deal with ‘only a handful of truly strategic projects'. If it was allowed to rule on more applications it would ‘make a mockery of local authorities' place-shaping role, and that must not be allowed to happen'. The Planning Bill also outlines proposals to give councils more powers to charge developers for infrastructure. Under current legislation, councils can charge developers for on-site infrastructure, but the new Bill will give more flexibility to charge for projects in other areas. The Bill will also put a new duty on councils to tackle climate change. The Government hopes to get give major projects the go ahead in half the time, and to save £300m a year – or almost £5bn by 2030. Lib Dem local government spokesman, Tom Brake, said there was a real risk residents' concerns would be ‘bulldozed out of the way' in an effort to speed up the process.
