A SHAKE-UP of planning laws could result in the "selling" of consent for projects, a North East peer will tell Parliament today.

Labour’s Jeremy Beecham is expected to warn the amount of money that developers can offer will become a “material consideration” in whether to approve planning applications or not under the Government’s flagship Localism Bill.

His concerns focus on the so-called “community infrastructure levy” that developers must pay towards facilities such as new roads, flood defences, schools and hospitals. The amount they are willing to pay could determine whether planning applications go ahead, argue critics.

Lord Beecham is also set to raise wider concerns about the Localism Bill, which receives its second reading in the House of Lords today – including about councillors being allowed to comment on planning applications before making decisions on them.

The Royal Town Planning Institute – RTPI – the largest professional institute for planners in Europe, has also expressed concern that the Government’s new homes bonus supposed to encourage councils to approve house-building could lead to inappropriate projects.

And they fear the move would breach the “fundamental principle” that planning permission may not be bought or sold, or that there is any such perception.

Lord Beecham, a frontbench Labour spokesman on local government, said “I am disturbed by the provisions relating to predetermination on the part of members in relation to planning matters, which appears to me to breach the quasi-judicial approach appropriate to such issues.

“And to making the existence of a community infrastructure levy a material consideration in planning, which could be tantamount to selling planning permissions.”