CLA calls for Government to implement Penfold Review recommendations on ‘non-planning consents’
The CLA has backed the Final Report of the Penfold Review on non-planning consents, published today (5 July), and called for the Government to put its recommendations into action.
Non-planning consents cover dozens of areas that affect CLA members, from tree works and protected species licensing to footpath diversion and listed building consent. The Penfold Review was set up by the last Government at the end of 2009 to examine whether the operation of such consents could be improved.
CLA President William Worsley said: “Our 35,000 members generate jobs, provide land and buildings for investment and deliver housing for local people. Non-planning consents usually have genuine public interest justifications, but in practice often work in inefficient or disproportionate ways, delaying or preventing changes which would create jobs or homes, or protect landscape or heritage.
The Penfold Review has looked intelligently at this complex area and recommended solutions which should deliver real improvements and also – by focusing resources more efficiently – better achieve the objectives of non-planning consents. This approach fits the deregulation priorities of the new Government and we strongly hope that its recommendations will be implemented.”
1. Non-planning consents are the consents that businesses and others need for development, other than planning permission (which was looked at separately by the Killian Pretty Review in 2008-09). The Penfold Review found more than 80 such consents, for example environmental permits, highways consents, advertisements, waste and drainage, flood defence, water abstraction, scheduled monument consent, gambling, premises licensing, noise consents, pesticides, hazardous substances, and utility connections.
2. The CLA Game Fair, the world’s largest countryside event, will be held at Ragley Hall, Alcester, Warwickshire, on Friday, 23 July – Sunday, 25 July 2010.
3. The CLA has published a Manifesto on releasing the full potential of the rural economy. For further information please visit: http://www.cla.org.uk/Policy_Work/CLA_Manifesto/
4. The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has more than 35,000 members.
5. As a membership organisation, the CLA supports landowners by advising them on how best to protect and maximise their asset: the land. We are dedicated to supporting landowners and their businesses. Our success is measured by how effectively we do that. We have a team of experts in London and a regional structure able to give local support.
6. We have been looking after the interests of our members, as well as promoting the positive aspects of land ownership, land management and rural business activities for the past 100 years. CLA members own or manage approximately half the rural land in England and Wales, and the resulting expertise puts us in a unique position to formulate policies and lobby effectively.
7. For more information about the CLA, visit: www.cla.org.uk