Labour’s planning reforms must match manifesto commitment to no new fossil fuel developments

The government’s proposed changes to national planning policy are a missed opportunity to prevent new oil, coal and gas projects being approved by local authorities, Friends of the Earth has said, calling for more explicit language to end the permissive planning environment for fossil fuel developments.

As part of its response to the consultation on the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which closes today (24 September), the environmental justice campaigners say the proposals don’t go far enough and leave the guidance for planning authorities at odds with Labour’s manifesto commitments to no new licences for oil, gas and coal, and to ban fracking for good.

The current draft of the NPPF continues to give a mandate to authorities to ‘plan positively’ for oil and gas extraction, gives ‘great’ decision-making weight for land-based oil and gas development, and still allows consideration of approving coal mining in certain circumstances.

Friends of the Earth is calling for amends to:

• The definition of ‘mineral resources of local and national importance’ to remove reference to ‘deep-mined coal, oil and gas (including conventional and unconventional hydrocarbons)’.

• Remove any references to ‘encouraging’ and ‘plan positively’ for any aspect of fossil fuel exploration.

• Make clear that councils should not plan for or grant planning permission for new oil and gas extraction.

• Remove disproportionate ‘positive’ weighting to fossil fuels developments.

• Be clear that planning permission should not be granted for the extraction of coal, oil and gas in any circumstances.

These changes would reflect the views of the world’s leading scientists, the government’s own advisors, the Climate Change Committee, the UN and the International Energy Agency, that there can be no new fossil fuel developments if global climate targets aimed at averting the worst of climate breakdown are to be met.

Magnus Gallie, senior planner at Friends of the Earth, said:

“If nothing changes, the government is essentially allowing the English planning system to remain open to considering new oil, gas and coal developments.

“This is at odds both with the manifesto commitments to no new fossil fuel projects on which Labour was elected, and recent landmark legal judgments which have quashed planning permission for oil and coal projects because their full climate impact wasn’t considered. It’s time for planning policy to catch up with these developments.

“It’s positive to see the government’s drive to ramp up investment in cheap, clean, homegrown renewables reflected in its planning reform proposals. This will lower energy bills for good, cut emissions, boost the economy and create thousands of new jobs.

“But with the urgent need to get the UK’s climate goals back on track, including the fast-approach 2030 target, this must be matched with a clear signal to the fossil fuel industry that time is up for new oil, gas and coal development across England.”

Earlier this month, planning permission for a controversial new coal mine in Whitehaven, Cumbria was quashed after the High Court ruled that the approval was granted unlawfully, following legal challenges by Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate.

The judgment found that the full emissions from burning the extracted coal – 99% of total emissions from the mine – were not properly considered during the planning process. The ruling also rubbished claims from the mining company that the mine would be ‘net zero’ and wouldn’t impact the UK’s ability to meet its legally binding climate targets under the Climate Change Act.

This followed a landmark Supreme Court judgment (Finch v Surrey County Council; with Friends of the Earth intervening) that found planning permission for fossil fuel projects must consider the environmental impact of burning the fossil fuels, not just extracting them. The Whitehaven ruling shows unequivocally that previous arguments and processes for justifying planning permission for such climate-wrecking projects are fundamentally flawed when it comes to the climate, with national planning policy needing to play catch-up.