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Planning Bill

moved Amendment No. 152: 152: Clause 28, page 17, line 39, leave out ““150,000”” and insert ““500,000”” The noble Lord said: I shall speak first to the government amendments and then the noble Lord, Lord Dixon-Smith, will speak to his. Clause 28 defines the types of waste water treatment plant development that will be classed as nationally significant under the Bill and so require consent from the IPC. There has been considerable consultation on the planning White Paper and, more recently, extensive discussions with industry. Several stakeholders have raised concerns with the Government that the threshold for waste water treatment plants is too low and may capture projects that are not of national significance. We have listened to those concerns and have been persuaded by the arguments that industry and stakeholders have made. As a result, we have tabled our Amendments Nos. 152 and 153, which increase the threshold so as only to capture the biggest projects in England where the additional treatment capacity exceeds a population equivalent of 500,000. The challenge, as ever, is to bring the empirical evidence. My understanding is that this threshold will be consistent with the project caseload anticipated in the Bill impact assessment of one project every 10 years. I beg to move.