Minister to face Transport Committee over major rail and road infrastructure planning policy
The Transport Committee will aim questions about the Government’s new proposed planning policies for major rail and road infrastructure at Minister Richard Holden MP.
Meeting details
The cross-party Committee has been scrutinising the Department for Transport’s draft revised NNNPS – a set of regulations and guidelines the Government will use before deciding whether to grant planning permission for new nationally significant projects.
MPs have been interested in examining how the draft Statement aligns with net zero emission policies, and how it assesses and responds to forecasts for future passenger and freight demand on the transport networks. There have also been questions about how effective the NNNPS will be at providing legal certainty and avoiding legal challenges to new projects that can arise from ambiguity in regulations.
Likely areas of questioning
The session will begin with a panel of witnesses from the RAC Foundation, Transport for the North and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. They will be questioned on whether industry feels the NNNPS will help meet the needs of travellers and business, and whether it will meet future transport demand while aligning with wider priorities like net zero.
In the second panel, Mr Holden will be joined by Department for Transport officials. The Committee is likely to ask whether the central aim of the NNNPS is about cutting emissions or helping schemes through the planning process. MPs may ask to what extent DfT’s projections of future road use could be eased by policies that promote modal shift, and whether developing new infrastructure will further induce demand for roads.