Planning approval for most of the country's construction is to go to Local Government bodies under the new Planning and Facilitation of Development Bill.

And there will be stronger enforcement of land development rules with the establishment of an Office of Enforcement.

There will also be stronger regulation, Planning Minister Dr Bhoe Tewarie said at yesterday's post-Cabinet news conference at the Office of the Prime Minister in St Clair.

"About 80 per cent of the applications that now come to Town and Country Planning for approval involving simple approvals such as the construction of a house; we are going to devolve to Local Government," he said.

The Planning Ministry is currently analysing the capabilities and skill set needed in order for the municipal bodies to be able to handle the volume of work they will get under the new arrangement.

Tewarie also said that if the country was going to be zoned, so that it would be clear where there can be housing construction, agriculture, light commercial and heavy industrial construction, one needed to have enforcement.

He said with the establishment of an Office of Enforcement, "people would not be able to get away with the things that they do now".

Tewarie said Government would also establish an authority that will regulate and manage the process of land use and land development, so that the big developments will go to that authority for approval. He said the appellate mechanism (appeals process) would also be strengthened and made more transparent.

Tewarie said there would be four pilot projects—in Port of Spain, San Fernando, Tunapuna/Piarco and Tobago.

He said a Registration of Planners Bill—which will make mandatory the registration and licensing of the practice of urban and regional planning in Trinidad and Tobago—will be laid with the Planning Bill.