Labour faces revolt in commission vote

Vicki Shiel, PlanningResource, 6 June 2008

Parliament: furore over infrastructure decision-making

After two delays, The House of Commons is now set to vote in the week beginning 23rd June on an amendment to the Planning Bill that calls for the ministerial veto on major infrastructure schemes to be retained.

Promoters of the amendment maintained that the IPC should act in an advisory capacity to the secretary of state, who would still have the final say.

The amendment was proposed by Labour MP Clive Betts, who told Planning: "I suspect the delay is because they had concerns about what would have happened on Monday.

He added:  "The IPC has a job to do but at the end of the day the final decision should rest with the minister. Having an unelected body deciding on nuclear power stations is nonsense."

"You will not find many Labour MPs who think that the government's position on this is a sensible one."

Labour MP Paul Truswell, who has lobbied on the IPC proposal since last summer, agreed that it is a major concern among backbenchers.

The amendment is likely to receive support across all parties. Tory MP for Wokingham John Redwood said that the IPC would be an unnecessary "super quango" and that ministers should lead the debate.

A DCLG spokesman explained: "Parliament will be given a key scrutiny role through consultation on draft national policy statements. Ministers will publish a detailed response to issues raised before finalising the policy."

The vote covers a second set of amendments to the bill. A vote on the first set was held earlier this week. But critics slammed the amount of time allocated to debating the changes.

Redwood condemned the government's decision to allocate time limits for sections of the bill rather than letting the Commons decide, describing it as a "travesty of democracy".

"The issues most likely to attract Labour rebels were given limited time, often at inconvenient points of the session," he argued. None of the amendments proposed by anyone other than the government were passed.