Projects and consents, flexibility vs. planning Highlight Report

The National Strategic Infrastructure Projects (NSIP) regime was introduced in 2008 to support the delivery of major projects of national importance. The system has worked well and has largely been supported by most users. It has introduced guaranteed timescales for achieving the Development Consent Order (DCO) and has been used for over 75 schemes.

Now that many of these projects are moving into delivery, there have been increasing concerns about the flexibility available within the DCO, which is a Parliamentary Order. The timescales for material amendments, which are made by the relevant Secretary of State, are indicative and in practice have not been met. Given the difficulty in changing the DCO this means that promoters are more tempted to take the pragmatic approach and implement the consent that they have rather than try to change it in order to try to achieve benefits of cost, innovation and improved working.

This event will discuss the issues that promoters have faced in their attempts to achieve flexibility and what methods might be used to improve this in practice. This will draw on recent research commissioned by the National Infrastructure Planning Association (NIPA) and the experience of three DCOs in different sectors – energy, highways and Thames Tideway. Why has flexibility not been sought in the process? What are the project and community costs of not addressing this issue? What changes could there be that would improve this situation? Does the government need to change its advice or are there other ways of achieving these ends?

We will hear speakers from the NIPA research project and those who have been directly involved in moving from a consent to delivery. We will also hear from those concerned with community interests – a democratic representative and a consultation consultant. Finally, there will be an opportunity to discuss these issues to provide participants with an opportunity to reflect on the challenges and the ways that could be used to introduce more flexibility into NSIP project delivery.