黑洞社区

Business leaders have called on the government to reverse its decision to axe plans to establish the National Infrastructure Commission in law.

In an open letter to chancellor Philip Hammond, business leaders urged the government to reconsider its 鈥渟urprise decision鈥� and 鈥渋ntroduce the Bill promised in the Queen鈥檚 Speech in the next Parliamentary Session鈥�.

The letter was signed by CBI director-general Carolyn Fairbairn, KPMG鈥檚 Richard Threlfall, British Chambers of Commerce acting director-general Dr Adam Marshall and London First director of strategy and policy John Dickie.

It comes after the government quietly shelved plans to establish an independent National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) in law, in a revised Neighbourhood Planning bill published last month.

The open letter said: 鈥淛ust as the [Office for Budget Responsibility] needs statutory protection to ensure that it is properly independent of government and properly accountable to the public with the sanction of Parliament, so does the Commission.

鈥淭he overwhelming response of the Government鈥檚 extensive consultation was in favour of it becoming a statutory body, and its National Infrastructure Assessment being required to be laid before and voted on by Parliament.鈥�

Despite being dropped from the Neighbourhood Planning Bill, it remains unclear whether the NIC will eventually be given statutory independence.

A previous version of the bill 鈥� going by the longer title of Neighbourhood Planning and Infrastructure Bill 鈥� had included a provision to put the NIC on an independent statutory footing.

And a Whitehall insider told 黑洞社区 last month that civil servants still expect the NIC to get statutory powers: 鈥淎s far as I鈥檓 aware there鈥檚 still the commitment to do that and that hasn鈥檛 changed. We鈥檙e still working with it, it鈥檚 about long term planning.鈥�

A Treasury spokesperson refused to confirm whether or not the NIC would be given statutory powers and said the government was still considering how the NIC could support its industrial strategy.

But the spokesperson added: 鈥淭he National Infrastructure Commission has a crucial role to play in setting out the country鈥檚 infrastructure priorities and it has already made major contributions to transport and smart power through its first three reports.

鈥淲e remain fully committed to the Commission and are considering how it can best support the government鈥檚 new industrial strategy.鈥�