I am delighted that one of the many unelected quangos set up under Labour has been earmarked for abolition. The new Coalition Government has agreed to do away with the unelected Infrastructure Planning Committee and intends to replace it with the more democratically accountable Major Infrastructure Planning Unit within the department for Communities and Local Government.
Whilst it is important that decisions on major infrastructure projects are taken as efficiently as possible it is equally vital that such decisions are taken not by unelected and unaccountable quangos but by democratically elected ministers. The new Coalition Government is committed to reversing the explosion of unelected committees set up under the old Labour government and to ensuring that elected ministers can be held responsible for their decisions.

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