Commentary on Sections Promoting growth and facilitating provisions of infrastructure, and related matters Section1: Option to make planning application directly to the Secretary of State
19.This section amends the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (“the 1990 Act”) by inserting new sections 62A to 62C.
20.Section 62A allows a planning application, an application for reserved matters consent and certain connected applications to be made directly to the Secretary of State where the local planning authority has been designated by him, provided the planning application is for (or the application for reserved matters consent relates to) major development. The “connected applications” can include applications for listed building or conservation area consent and other applications under the planning Acts that the Secretary of State may prescribe in regulations.
21.The conditions which must be satisfied before a planning authority may be designated for this purpose are set out in section 62B: by reference to published criteria the Secretary of State must consider that there are respects in which an authority are not adequately performing their function of determining applications under Part 3 of the 1990 Act. Section 62B also provides that the criteria must be contained in a document which is laid before both Houses of Parliament for a period of forty sitting days, and that they may come into effect only if neither House has voted against the document during this period.
22.Section 62C imposes a duty on the Secretary of State to notify parish councils of any applications submitted directly to him that relate to land in their area (where a parish council have previously asked the relevant local planning authority to be notified of applications submitted to that authority). It also requires a designated planning authority, if requested by the Secretary of State, to let the Secretary of State know which parish councils have asked to be notified in this way.
23.Schedule 1 makes consequential amendments. In particular, it–
	Amends section 2A of the 1990 Act to allow the Mayor of London to continue to “call in” planning applications of strategic significance where they have been submitted directly to the Secretary of State, rather than to a planning authority within Greater London.
	Inserts a new section 76C into the 1990 Act which allows applications submitted directly to the Secretary of State to be subject to the same procedural provisions (set out in a development order) as apply to applications made to a local planning authority.
	Inserts a new section 76D into the 1990 Act which allows for a person to be appointed to determine on the Secretary of State’s behalf those applications that are submitted directly to the Secretary of State (in practice, the intention is to allow the Planning Inspectorate to determine the majority of such decisions on behalf of the Secretary of State).
	Inserts a new section 76E into the 1990 Act which allows the Secretary of State to ”recover” for decision any case that would otherwise be determined by an appointed person; the intention being that the Secretary of State should be able, for example, to determine any cases that raise issues of national importance.
	Amends the 1990 Act to give the Secretary of State the power to decline to determine applications of a similar nature to those recently refused, or which are similar to ones currently being considered (mirroring the powers available to local planning authorities).
	Amends the 1990 Act to provide that the right of appeal to the Secretary of State, against non-determination of an application within prescribed time limits, does not apply to applications that are submitted directly to the Secretary of State. Section 78(1) of the 1990 Act already limits the right of appeal against a refusal of permission to applications submitted to a local planning authority. Taken together, these provisions mean that there would be no right of appeal to the Secretary of State where an application is submitted directly to the Secretary of State (but, as a result of the amendment of section 284(3) of the 1990 Act, any decision on the application can be challenged in the High Court).
	Amends the 1990 Act to allow the Secretary of State to make regulations through which a fee may be charged for directly submitted planning applications, or for the provision of pre-application advice (as local planning authorities may do already).