Expressions of interest open for National Infrastructure Early Adopters Programme
The Planning Inspectorate is trialling potential components of a future enhanced pre-application service for National Infrastructure.
The Planning Inspectorate is working closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and other government departments in shaping future service offerings to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) sector, as described in the NSIP Reform Action Plan.
Amongst other things, key areas of work in which we are engaged with DLUHC include inputting to potential changes to legislation, future digitalisation of the NSIP regime, developing proposals for full cost recovery in service provision, reshaping pre-application service support and contributing to how the consenting process could be made smoother and, where appropriate, quicker in future.
The Inspectorate firmly believes that when delivering change programmes there is a need to test and trial ideas, not least to understand likely demand and benefits, but also to assess whether there are any unintended consequences, including to the wider system on which we rely to function. An early trial to test possible changes to the pre-application service is the Early Adopters Programme.
What is the Early Adopters Programme?
The Early Adopters Programme has been established to trial the following potential components of a future enhanced pre-application service for applications decided under procedures set out in the Planning Act 2008 (PA2008):
- Programme planning
- Evidence plan production
- Issues tracking
- Pre-application principal areas of disagreement statements (PADS) production
- Policy compliance document production
- Demonstrating regard to section 51 advice (and other statutory advice)
- Design approach document production
- Mature outline control document production
- Advice log production
- Multiparty meetings
These trials are to support our thinking around how to improve services within the existing legislative framework, and they complement the forthcoming government consultation on the full package of NSIP reforms. Lessons emerging from this work, as well as responses to the government consultation, will inform the government’s response and future reforms.
The enhanced pre-application service will in future likely be available to all applicants as a mechanism to optimise frontloading and contribute to smoother examinations. It is also intended as a potential route for projects seeking to establish suitability for a shorter examination under proposed provisions set out in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill (LURB).
The Early Adopters Programme is free for applicants; however as indicated in the government’s NSIP Reform Action Plan, the intention is for the Inspectorate to move towards full cost recovery for its NSIP work in future. Therefore, this work will provide an opportunity to not only test the value of the different components but also allow the Inspectorate, applicants and relevant stakeholders to better appreciate the likely associated cost and resource requirements of undertaking such work in future.
The Early Adopters Programme is separate to the Fast Track Pilot Programme. The Fast Track Pilot Programme will see a small number of projects engaged in a trial of the full enhanced pre-application service. Suitable projects for the full pilot programme will be identified through a separate process later this year. Full pilots are expected to commence from Autumn 2023 onwards.
Who has been invited to express interest in taking part in the Early Adopters Programme?
The Inspectorate has invited projects with an anticipated submission between September 2023 and March 2024 to express interest in taking part in the Early Adopters Programme.
The establishment of this scope should allow projects falling within it to commence the trial of an element(s) early enough in the Pre-application process to make the intervention meaningful and therefore provide the highest value as the design of the future enhanced pre-application service is developed.
All projects falling within scope have been invited to take part in the programme on an equal basis, indicated solely by the anticipated submission date that the applicant has provided to the Inspectorate. The Inspectorate considers that this is the fairest way to offer access to the trial which for some sectors will interact with competitive markets such as energy generation.
Involvement by projects in these trials is on a voluntary basis and is non-statutory. The adherence to or production of any of the trial elements is without prejudice to any decision about whether to accept the application for examination which is subject to separate statutory tests under section 55 of The PA2008.
What happens next?
Successful expressions of interest (EoI) in the Early Adopters Programme will be associated with projects satisfying the following criteria:
- have received an invitation directly to provide an EoI for the Early Adopters Programme;
- provide an EoI to the Inspectorate by the deadline of 12 May 2023, including confirmation of the component(s) that they wish to be considered for involvement in trialling;
- are able and prepared to accompany the EoI with a detailed Programme Plan through to submission of their application;
- understand that the trial is applicant-driven and will involve substantial additional effort and resource from the applicant’s team; and
- are otherwise suitable to trial a component(s) in the view of the Inspectorate and affected Arm’s Length Bodies (ALB) of Defra (including consideration of available resource etc).
Projects identified to proceed with the Early Adopters Programme will be contacted in due course by their Inspectorate Case Team to initiate development of the identified component(s).
Whether or not a project has been invited to express interest in the Early Adopters Programme, we welcome and encourage receipt of any information in relation to any innovative approaches applicants are taking at the Pre-application stage with a view to making the consenting process smoother. Please discuss these with your allocated NSIP Case Team or provide details to nienquiries@planninginspectorate.gov.uk for the attention of NSIP Reform.