Planning and Infrastructure Bill

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Committee stage
Thursday 17th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, Amendments 26, 27, 32, 35, 39 and 42 were tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh. I am grateful to her for her amendments, and I thank the noble Baronesses, Lady Coffey and Lady Pinnock, for their comments. The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, referred to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I am afraid that, in this instance, the baby has become so fat that it cannot even get out of the bath, never mind be thrown out.

As I have outlined over the course of this debate, these amendments seek to undo a number of amendments tabled by the Government in the other place to remove the statutory requirement for applicants to consult in the preparation of an application. Given that this significant change was introduced during the Bill’s passage—a point I accept from all noble Lords who have mentioned it—I will outline again the Government’s motivations for making the change.

A particular aspect of concern has been the increasing length of time spent at the pre-application stage, resulting from the way that statutory requirements are being complied with. As outlined, consultation has become a tick-box exercise—the very one I was referring to earlier—that encourages risk aversion and gold-plating. We have therefore concluded that these requirements are now serving to slow schemes down rather than speed them up, and that the consultation taking place is not meaningful to the people involved. It just becomes that tick-box exercise.

In bringing in these changes, we want to speed up the typical period taken to submit applications and further save money in this Parliament’s pipeline of projects. We are committed to sustaining a planning system that encourages high-quality applications and delivers benefits to the nation and local communities. We all know that high-quality applications are those that have been developed through early and meaningful engagement with those impacted, including local authorities, statutory consultees, communities and landowners. Affected individuals will, of course, still be able to object to applications, provide evidence of impacts on them and participate in the process through which applications are examined.

As I have explained, in making this change the Government are clear that this signifies not that consultation and engagement are no longer important but just that the current system is not working well for either developers or communities. Guidance will be forthcoming on how engagement can be undertaken so that applicants can produce high-quality applications. We look forward to engagement on this matter. I take the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, about consultation on consultation—he is right—but, in this case, it is necessary.

The Planning Inspectorate will continue to consider whether an application is suitable to proceed to examination and be examined under statutory timeframes. The guidance will outline best practice—to answer the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh. I cannot give her any absolute detail yet because, as we said, we are consulting on it, but it will outline the best practice, which will involve pre-application engagement. The Planning Inspectorate, on behalf of the Secretary of State, will continue to issue advice to applicants under Section 51 of the Act and have regard to the extent to which applicants have had regard to the advice. These changes will provide flexibility so that applicants can undertake engagement in the way they consider best for their proposed development in accordance with that guidance. I therefore kindly ask the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, to withdraw her amendment.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

I am grateful to the Minister for her remarks, and to all who spoke. I meant to give a big shout-out to the clerks in the Public Bill Office. I know how hard our Front Bench and the Government Front Bench are working, but I understand that there are only four clerks in the Public Bill Office, who are assisting us with all our amendments, so I am deeply grateful to them for their assistance in this regard.

I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, and my noble friends Lady Coffey and Lord Jamieson for their support. The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, made a good point about reforming, not removing. Together with the loss of hope value and the new provisions on the compulsory purchase of land that we will come to later, I find it staggering how shabbily treated farmers and landowners are by this Government. I am sure there will be plenty more opportunities to elaborate on those arguments.

I understand that the Government are consulting on the guidance at the moment, but it is regrettable that we are not in possession of the guidance before we are asked to remove Clause 4, or at least to reintroduce the consultation at pre-application stage of category 1 and category 2 persons. It seems profoundly undemocratic—profoundly rude, in the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock—and I will consider whether or not to bring this back at a later stage. But, for the moment, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Housing Associations: Financial Assistance

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Thursday 3rd July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for that question. As well as the financial support that we announced yesterday, there is a significant package of delivery to help support our colleagues in local government and in the registered provider sector, supporting the planning process with additional funding for planners, setting clear targets for housing delivery, investing in the skills and capacities I outlined, working to help accelerate stalled sites through the major sites accelerator, helping with the delivery of infrastructure through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill—which we will debate shortly—looking forward very much to the New Towns Taskforce and its work, and ensuring that we stabilise the economy to attract the investment we need in housing after 14 years of failure that led to the housing crisis.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

The noble Baroness will be aware that there is a crying need for one-bedroom and two-bedroom houses in rural areas. That need is not fulfilled because the houses that are being built have three, four or five bedrooms. The affordable homes that form part of a planning application are often resiled from on intervention from the Secretary of State. Will the noble Baroness use her good offices to review the position to ensure that there is a stable supply of one-bedroom and two-bedroom homes in rural areas?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The Government genuinely understand the need for homes in rural areas, and we have focused on the rural exception site type of policies that allow local areas to ring-fence that housing for local need. We will continue to do that. It is for local authorities to determine the types of housing, both through the planning process and in their local plans. In the National Planning Policy Framework, which was published in December, we have for the first time allowed local authorities to make provision specifically for their social housing needs, which I hope will help in rural areas.

Planning Reforms: Energy and Housing Costs

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Thursday 15th May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, it is important that, as we go forward with our ambitious target to build 1.5 million homes, we take care of the environment at the same time. Natural England’s role in that, which the noble Lord points to, is key in developing the plans that will protect nature as we build those homes. I understand the concerns that he and other noble Lords have about the resources in Natural England. We are working very closely with it, and we will provide it with additional resources to help it deliver with us what I do not think is a contradiction: the development and infrastructure that we all want to see, while protecting our precious natural environment at the same time.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am sorry, but the noble Lord is quite wrong in his assumption. We are prioritising building on brownfield sites. I know he has a particular bugbear about London; I was with the Mayor of London just last week and was very pleased to see his review of the use of the green belt in London as part of the work on the London Plan. I was interested to hear that, of the half a million hectares of green belt in London, just 13% is made up of parks and accessible green space. The mayor is making progress on this, and so are we. Brownfield will always be our first choice, but we are looking at grey-belt and green-belt development as well.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Will the Minister look carefully at the cumulative impact on rural and coastal communities of major infrastructure projects? When an offshore planning application is made for a wind farm, it is causing real distress: before people realise it, they have substations to take the electricity on board, and then lines of pylons. What steps will the Government take to alleviate this situation?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

We now have a land-use framework from Defra, and we will be producing a long-term housing strategy, which will include information about how we intend to work in rural areas. I hope the noble Baroness will contribute to the consultation on that. It is of course very important that we develop the infrastructure we need as a country and continue our move towards a clean-energy future. That will mean some use of land in rural and urban areas, but that can sometimes be exaggerated. The figure my noble friend the Energy Minister often cites is that, at the moment, our plans mean that 0.1% of land would be used for solar farms. So we have to be careful about over-exaggerating the issue, but the noble Baroness’s point is well made and we do need to protect good-quality agricultural land—that is our intention—as well as making sure we build what we need.

Car Parking Companies

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I think many local authorities would say that the fees and charges that they charge for parking help with the enormous gap in funding that they have faced in the last 14 years, and that is one of the reasons why they do it. It is for the voters of the local areas to decide whether or not the parking policies in their area are sound; local people can challenge parking policies if they wish to.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Does the Minister share my concern about the level of hospital parking charges, which seem to be completely unregulated? Will she look at this at the earliest opportunity?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am sorry: I missed the start of the noble Baroness’s question.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

Will the noble Baroness look at the astronomically high level of hospital parking charges, which seem to go completely unregulated?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

Once again, I understand the frustrations about this. It is for hospital trusts to decide how they manage their own parking arrangements, and people can challenge that. However, I appreciate that there are significant issues in that respect. I am sorry to keep repeating it, but if the noble Baroness wishes to put in a submission to the consultation, I would be grateful to hear from her.

Planning Committees: Reform

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Thursday 12th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord is quite right to pick up this point. It is the intention that, where applications are in conformity with the local plan, a speedy decision should be taken. The whole point of these reforms is intended to make that much easier, without removing the ability of local councillors and communities to make their views known on it. This is a working paper for discussion with the sector, and we hope that the sector will put its views forward. The intention is to speed up the process, not to have planning applications stuck in the system.

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I had the honour to chair the Select Committee on the review of the Licensing Act 2003. One of our most powerful conclusions was that planning and licensing committees should be merged, and that there should be consistent and frequent training of planning and licensing officers before they take their place on these committees. Is that something that the Government might look favourably on introducing? It would increase the effectiveness of the local voice and the way in which planning and licensing committees operate.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Baroness is absolutely right. I must admit that, at my local authority, you had to have training before you went on the planning committee, and I had assumed that that was the case everywhere. It is not. Part of the consultation on the working paper is the introduction of mandatory training. We are considering a wide range of implementation options, and we look forward to working with stakeholders. There are great examples of training around the country. However, it is inconsistent—more inconsistent than I had realised—and we need to find out where the best practice is so that we can work nationally on that issue. I totally agree with her point that the public will have more confidence if they know that people have had training.

Spending Commitments to Local Councils

Debate between Baroness McIntosh of Pickering and Baroness Taylor of Stevenage

Monday 22nd July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Pickering (Con)]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Baroness most warmly on her new position. I remind her that she spoke from these Benches less than two months ago saying that the existing spending commitments for local councils on drainage authorities were insufficient. Does she still hold that view?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, we all know that for too long funding and support for local leaders has been fragmented and inconsistent, and the noble Baroness rightly raises the issue of those authorities that have drainage levies imposed on them. We will continue to look at that issue. I did raise it and indeed I have had correspondence since I took up this new role, so we will continue to look at that.