Housing and Planning Bill

Earl of Liverpool Excerpts

Tuesday 26th January 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Liverpool (Con)]

My Lords, I preface my brief remarks by declaring an interest as director of a property development company, as shown in the Lords’ register. I wholly support the main aspirations of the Bill, which are to facilitate the creation of 200,000 starter homes by 2020 and to extend right to buy to tenants of housing associations. I believe that this has the potentially to dramatically improve people’s lives in the same way the right-to-buy legislation did when implemented by the Conservative Government in the Housing Act 1980. I am sorry that my noble friend Lord Heseltine is not in his place. I hope that he will not mind me quoting something he said at that time:

“There is in this country a deeply ingrained desire for home ownership. The Government believe that this spirit should be fostered. It reflects the wishes of the people, ensures the wide spread of wealth through society, encourages a personal desire to improve and modernise one’s own home, enables parents to accrue wealth for their children and stimulates the attitudes of independence and self-reliance that are the bedrock of a free society”.—[Official Report, Commons, 15/1/1980; cols. 1444-45.]

Those are fine words that I believe are as appropriate today as they were some 35 years ago.

Many noble Lords will have received briefing papers from various bodies and organisations. I was particularly drawn to one from the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust—I do not think that that has been mentioned so far. The paper reminds us that the risk of surface water, sewer and river flooding can be dramatically increased by development. Graphic pictures of the damage to property in the recent floods in the north are still fresh in our minds. It is predicted that by 2060 climate change could result in a 20% to 40% increase in rainfall and a 30% to 110% increase in flood damage, so it is important that new developments pass a flood resilience test. This requirement should be enshrined in the Bill. I hope that it may be possible to achieve that at later stages.

The Flood and Water Management Act 2010 included a powerful set of provisions for mandating sustainable drainage systems—SUDS, to use the acronym—in new developments, but for some reason the Government chose not to bring Section 32 of that Act into force. The noble lord, Lord Krebs, as chair of the Adaptation Sub-Committee, stated that,

“the uptake of sustainable drainage systems in new development is lamentable”.

I hope that something positive can be done to correct that.

Clause 2 includes provisions intended to increase the number of self-build and custom-built properties. It requires local authorities to maintain a register of individuals who have expressed an interest in acquiring land for this purpose, and to grant development permission for suitable plots of land to meet this demand. This is a very positive proposal which would give tangible help to smaller independent builders. It would also add an extra dimension to the overall provision of new homes.

As noble Lords have already stated, there are a great many provisions in this Bill—too many to go into in detail in the time available. I welcome Part 2 of the Bill which includes measures intended to tackle rogue landlords and property agents in the private rented sector. I congratulate the Government on introducing amendments in another place on Report, making the breaching of a banning order a criminal offence and raising the maximum penalty to £30,000.

One aspect of our planning process which I find generally troubling is the failure of a great number of local authorities to produce a local development plan. A press release from the Prime Minister’s office, published in October last year, stated that only 65% of councils had fully adopted them, and almost 20% of councils still do not have an up-to-date plan at all. I find this shocking as it makes a cohesive programme of development all but impossible. At the same time, it leaves those areas without a plan vulnerable to all kinds of piecemeal and often inappropriate planning applications which the local authority is unable to refuse. As my noble friend the Minister said in her opening remarks, Clause 132 gives the Secretary of State default powers in this respect, which I very much welcome.

I am grateful to the House Library for producing a Library Note which I found very helpful in enabling me to make some sense of this wide-ranging and complex Bill.

I agree with my noble friend Lord Young of Cookham —he is not in his place at the moment—who believes that this is the most important Bill in the gracious Speech. I wish it well in its passage through your Lordships’ House.