Current parliamentary and policy news

The newly elected Labour Government made several pre-election policy pledges that will impact the work of acousticians and our soundscapes. The Parliamentary Liaison Group will be working to identify opportunities to raise the profile of acoustic issues to new MPs, and to those who have been re-elected.

Above: Planning reform to speed up the building of new roads has been proposed by the newly elected Labour Government

Planning reform in particular is an area where advocacy for consideration of sound and noise issues will continue. Pledges made by Labour pre-election included updating the National Planning Policy Framework with a brownfield first policy to fast track ‘high quality homes’ and a 10 year infrastructure strategy with a National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority being set up to oversee road, railway and reservoir development. Updating national policy with new National Policy Statements to make major projects faster and cheaper was also promised. To make progress towards targets for renewable generation, Labour pledged to double onshore wind farm capacity by 2030 and promote local power generation. On transport, planning reform to speed up the building of new roads and support for aviation through airspace modernisation were proposed. Changes on onshore wind and the National Planning Policy Framework have been set out already and are summarised below.

Onshore Wind: Updated ETSU-R-97 expected Spring 2025
Just four days after the election it was announced that clauses in the National Planning Policy Statement that effectively prevented the development of new onshore wind are removed. Alongside this a consultation is pending to bring large onshore proposals into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project regime, with the intention of supporting quick determination, followed by a revised National Policy Statement. It is anticipated that ‘Local communities will play an essential part in delivering this mission and we will empower them to participate in decisions on local infrastructure.’ In answer to a question from Andrew Bowie MP, Michael Shanks, Under Secretary of State at DESNZ said: “We aim to publish the updated ETSU-R-97 guidance in Spring 2025. In the meantime, the current ETSU guidance remains suitable for assessing wind turbine noise and should continue to be applied accordingly.” 

Consultation on National Planning Policy Statement
An updated draft of the National Planning Policy Statement for England, which is intended to accelerate the development of housing and roll out of renewable energy has been published for consultation. The new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, put the plan in context of wider proposals for planning reform in an announcement at the end of July. Proposed changes that could influence noise and soundscape include:
• proposing a brownfield first policy and increasing density in urban areas;
• expanding the definition of brownfield by introducing the concept of grey belt when considering the green belt;
• focusing on well-designed homes rather than ‘beauty’; and
• bringing larger scale onshore wind projects back into the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects regime. 

Consultation response: Siting nuclear fusion facilities
The IOA has submitted its response to a consultation issued under the previous government, setting out proposals for the potential siting of nuclear fusion facilities. In broadly agreeing with the proposals, the IOA response states that the current Overarching National Policy Statement for Energy (EN-1) has, to date, proved effective in controlling noise and vibration impacts from other energy projects. While technologies differ, potential noise sources from energy generation – like turbines, pumps, compressors, cooling systems and transformers, are similar so can also be applied to fusion. The consultation covers England and Wales.

Consultation: Alcohol in licensed pavement areas
During the pandemic, regulations covering England and Wales were amended, allowing premises licensed to serve alcohol for consumption on premises (on- site) to sell alcohol for take away and to drink in licensed pavement areas (‘off-sales’), if they had a pavement license, without changing their license. This allowed pubs and restaurants to continue to trade when they could not serve customers indoors. These regulations expire in March 2025, and this consultation set out permanent options for alcohol licensing after this date. In responding IOA cautioned against making the temporary Covid relaxation permanent, unless the local authority is satisfied that the noise impact on the soundscape enjoyed by residents was not detrimentally affected. 

Scotland: Briefing on nuisance
The Scottish Parliament Information centre has published a briefing outlining some of the main rules which can be used to deal with nuisance complaints in Scotland. These are often connected to problems in housing or with neighbours, or with wider public health or environmental protection concerns, including complaints linked to excess noise. 

Scotland: Passivhaus consultation
In December 2022 the Scottish Government pledged to introduce legislation by December 2024 ‘to introduce new minimum environmental design standards for all new build housing to meet a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard, in order to improve energy efficiency and thermal performance’. This stage 1 consultation seeks views on the form and approach that a Scottish equivalent to the Passivhaus standard, implemented through building regulations, should adopt. The consultation asks what aspects should be highlighted in building regulations where there are risks to occupant comfort, and considers overheating, ventilation and noise. The Scottish Branch are examining the consultation and will be commenting on any acoustic aspects. The consultation closes on 23 October 2024. https://consult.gov.scot/local-government-and-communities/building-regulations-passivhaus-equivalent/

Europe: Updated recommendations for assessing health risk of environmental noise
The European Topic Centre on Human Health and the Environment has published a new report reflecting a growing body of evidence on the effects of environmental noise and health. The report aims to evaluate the existing health risk assessment (HRA) for method for the European Environmental Agency and propose adaptations to previously used methodology where necessary. Overall, the new body of evidence shows negative effects due to transport noise at much lower levels than those captured in the END exposure assessments (i.e. 55 dB L den, and 50 dB L night). Therefore, the report recommends risks of noise should be quantified at levels starting at 45 dB L den and 40 dB L night . It is expected that applying the new methods will considerably increase the burden of disease attributable to transportation noise in the EU compared to previous EU-wide HRA. ETC HE Report 2023/11: Environmental noise health risk assessment: methodology for assessing health risks using data reported under the Environmental Noise Directive

Briefing notes online
Our series of briefing notes, which explain topical acoustic issues for the public and politicians, now have their own page on the IOA website. We currently cover five subjects – drones, noise cameras on roads, heat pumps and green space, and will be reviewing these to ensure information remains current. https://www.ioa.org.uk/publications/briefingnote

About the author: Mary Stevens supports the IOA to bring acoustics to the attention of policy-makers.