Housing (Built Environment Committee Report)

Baroness Thornhill Excerpts

Tuesday 8th November 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Thornhill (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, for his introduction. I am pleased to be a member of the Built Environment Committee. I found this brief challenging and I too thank our committee officers and special adviser, Professor Paul Cheshire, who helped us to see the wood for the trees —or, in my case, at least to try to. Our title is Meeting Housing Demand, which is a wide field. The breadth and level of expertise of our witnesses was phenomenal. I felt privileged to listen to many of them.

In my contribution on this wide-ranging report, I propose to focus on the planning system and the role of councils, and perhaps to be a little challenging to us as politicians. It goes without saying that, as a member, I agreed with most the recommendations, subject to the usual wrangling in coming to consensus.

The report focuses on how to build the now-accepted target of 300,000 homes a year. Actually, even that target was disputed. What was not disputed was that the Government are failing to reach it. In all fairness, so have decades of politicians; this is a long-term issue.

However, all the major parties agree that we need more homes. They broadly agree on the numbers and we even all mention this in our manifestos and general political rhetoric, but I have two points on this fact alone. First, it is all empty bravado and meaningless if the underlying problems in the system are not addressed. The report, with which we largely concur, uncomfortably highlights many of these for the Government.

Secondly, this is completely at odds with the subsequent rhetoric and actions of individual politicians of all parties when it comes to development in their own constituencies or wards. We have seen a nation of nimbys go BANANAs—build absolutely nothing anywhere near anybody. This is a serious issue and it needs serious attention. Taking the public with us is critical to success, and we need a radical, innovative approach to engagement. I hope the Minister shares the plans for this with us.

Following a range of comments made by senior politicians recently, there seems to have been backtracking on targets and housing numbers. I would welcome the Minister clarifying whether targets and top-down housing numbers allocated to local councils are to be continued under this new Government. In particular, how effective or not do the Government believe they have been in getting more homes built?

As for housing numbers, what progress have the Government made on deciding what the right honourable Michael Gove MP said, on returning to the Cabinet, is a

“fair way of allocating housing need”?

I am sure every politician in the land is eager to learn what constitutes a fair allocation in their council area.

This kind of statement epitomises one of my main concerns: it sounds plausible and sensible, along with other soundbites, such as “simplify the planning system”, “cut red tape” and “the right homes in the right places”, but what do they actually mean? We heard lots of those in our evidence, but they clearly mean different things to different interest groups.

Take the simple statement that is often repeated of delays in the planning system or that councils are to blame for reduced completions. For the housebuilders, this gets the politicians, and therefore the community, out of the picture. It means minimising housebuilders’ involvement, reducing their fees and levies, and simplifying policies so that expectations are known up front, riding roughshod over local consideration. This was more clearly and very recently expressed in the Home Builders Federation’s report Building Homes in a Changing Business Environment. Some noble Lords were sent that report, and more could and should be said on it, but time prohibits it.

I turn now to council planners, whose version is probably closer to that of the Government: to please stop developers trying to get out of their commitments to Section 106 and infrastructure levies, particularly around social housing; to give them stronger powers to insist on higher environmental building standards so that they do not spend ages haggling with developers; and to stop trying to water down their local policies, designed with and for their communities, in efforts to make it all simpler—for the developers.

I do not doubt that some councils are not performing at their best. How do we bring the worst closer to the best, and how do we empower council officers to stand up to developers which refuse to follow our best practice? Can the Minister tell us whether the Government will in fact be bringing forward plans to reform the planning system? In particular, what changes will there be to ensure that the skills and recruitment issues within councils outlined in the report are fully addressed?

We heard that qualified planners can earn significantly more money working for developers than for councils, which, especially small district councils, cannot compete with those salaries. Within the reforms, will the Government grasp the nettle of real community engagement, make the case for the national need for more homes, and be prepared to challenge not just councils—because, hey, they are a faceless piece of bureaucracy that the Government can tell what to do, and the Government bear down on them through such mechanisms as the housing delivery test—but council leaders and MPs who use that slogan, “the right homes in the right places”, and try to ride the tide of anger from their residents while, in some cases, actually voting for the policies that are prompting the rise in unpopular developments?

How will the Government face the challenge that local communities have virtually no incentive to permit residential development while saying that they will have a major say in local plans in the future, giving them opportunity to shape what happens in their area? Once again, the soundbite is good, but what does it mean in reality? How will it be different from what many good councils have been trying to do all along? How will it get communities to accept development? Are the Government still supportive of neighbourhood plans, for example, which seemed to work in some places in this regard?

Many residents’ objections are about the strain on local services, and this is well documented in the report. What are the latest plans on CIL—the community infrastructure levy—and Section 106 contributions, and, in particular, the recent proposals that such fees should be paid by the developer not only when the development is completed but the homes occupied? Is that still going ahead? Who will therefore be responsible for funding the infrastructure while it is being built? Will it be cash-strapped councils?

What do the Government intend to do with the 61% of councils without a local plan? They would argue that the Government should please stop changing the goalposts and let them get the plans finished—but, then, guess what? The goalposts change. Depending on the Minister’s answer, they will probably have to change again. In which case, will the current plans still be valid, and until when?

Finally, many witnesses spoke of uncertainty within planning permission—all the chopping and changing, and playing the blame game. I hate that we pit developers against councils, and councils against their communities, because this will not get community buy-in for 300,000 homes a year. This is only one aspect of the many highlighted in the report. However, I purport that, without it, it will make it politically difficult to deliver those essential 300,000 homes, and we will continue to fail to meet our critical housing needs.