What will the coalition Government do about planning law?

So the IPC is dead before it even got going. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to feel a little sympathy for the folk at the Infrastructure Planning Committee, the quango designed to fast-track tricky planning decisions, who have spent the last year getting all their eggs in order, who finally began calling for applications to come in just two months ago, and who have been sitting, ever since, twiddling their thumbs and waiting to find out who is coming into power and whether they’re going to get the axe.

The coalition Government included the announcement of its abolition in its agreement last week. But even as many cheer at the fall of what was seen as an undemocratic quango, they will also be waiting, with some trepidation, to see what will arise in its place. The IPC was, after all, the result of a seven year overhaul of our complicated and flawed planning system, the method that had been chosen by the government to unplug our clogged up, expensive and incredibly slow planning courts. How will this new coalition Government do that now?

Before the IPC the Government had depended heavily on the secretary of state’s veto....

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