How will major road and rail projects be decided in future? Transport Committee investigates
The Transport Committee holds the first session of its new inquiry that examines how the Government should update planning policies used to determine whether to give planning permission to new ‘nationally significant’ rail and road projects.
The planning policies are contained in the National Networks National Policy Statement (NNNPS), published in 2015. Ministers are now looking to revise the Statement.
Meeting details
In this session, witnesses (listed below) will be asked to discuss the Government’s current draft of an updated NNNPS, and consider how it might support economic growth in different regions and drive improvements for passenger and freight transport.
There will be questions on whether the new Statement includes policies that will be effective in decarbonising the transport sector in line with the Government’s 2050 net zero target, and policies for new infrastructure to contribute to active travel.
There will also be questions as to whether the new NNNPS is based on projections for road vehicle and rail use that are robust and based on the correct set of factors that will affect population size and demand.
The cross-party Committee recently published written evidence for this inquiry that it received from campaigners, industry bodies and academics, including organisations giving evidence in this session.