Infrastructure Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Best and Lord Tope

Thursday 10th July 2014 Grand Committee

[Lord Tope]

My Lords, in moving Amendment 83A, I wish to speak also to Amendment 83C, with which it is grouped. In many ways we now return to the debate we had on the amendment proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Best, and the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, about who would implement large-scale housing developments. Certainly, one solution that was offered was that of local development corporations. The Mayor of London already has that power as regards mayoral development corporations. This amendment seeks to extend that possibility to the rest of the country.

At this hour, I do not need to go into great detail as it is fairly obvious that Amendment 83C speaks for itself. It seeks to enable the Secretary of State to create local development corporations at the request of local authorities. Amendment 83A requires that any such development corporations so established,

“shall include at least one local authority elected member who shall have full voting rights”.

I hope that is self-evident and that it would happen anyway. I move that amendment as a probing amendment at this stage but hope to receive at least an encouraging response from the Minister. I hope that she and noble Lords opposite will at least support the intentions here. I beg to move.

[Lord Best]

My Lords, I declare the interest that I did not need to declare in my previous amendment, which is that I am president of the Local Government Association, which supports both these amendments. I see them as complementary to our earlier debate on nationally significant infrastructure projects.

I very much hope that wherever a local authority wants to get on with it and do these things, we should give it every possible encouragement. I hope that these amendments are both acceptable to the Minister but would just add that it is likely that housing associations would play a very significant role in the development corporations. Many local authorities will not themselves be undertaking development on such a scale, and co-operation and partnership with housing associations will also be incredibly important in making the development corporations work.

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[Lord Tope]

My Lords, I have tabled Amendment 83B to enable us to have what I hope will be a short but interesting debate on custom-build housing. This will give the Minister an opportunity to respond with examples of the Government’s enthusiasm for it, which I know is there. I am conscious that this time on a Thursday evening is probably not the best time to initiate such an enthusiastic debate. I am not suggesting for one moment that this is the answer to the housing crisis we discussed earlier today. Plainly, it is not but it is a small and useful part of the answer. There is a growing interest in custom-build housing so perhaps I should be clear for the record what is meant by that. It includes both self-build housing, where the owner builds it himself, and those where individual commissions for building are of a house. I think that the phrase custom-build housing has now been adopted to cover both.

The LGA tells me that one in 10 new houses in the UK is custom-built. If that is the case, as I am sure it is, it is a small but significant part. It is one which is growing and in which there is considerable interest. My part of the Government are certainly very keen to encourage it and if this fairly simple amendment—which, as I said, was intended to create a debate—were enacted it would encourage local authorities to make provision for custom-build housing in their assembly of land. It would give further stimulus and encouragement to what is, as I say, a growing market and make a contribution—perhaps a relatively small contribution but a useful one—to meeting the housing need. It would also meet it in a way which most directly meets the needs of those who wish to use that housing, because it is their housing in every sense of the word. With that brief explanation and introduction, I beg to move.

[Lord Best]

I will not prolong the debate late on a Thursday, but I add my support to this amendment and note again that the LGA is keen on it. The major housebuilders have moved up from building 46% of the nation’s housing to building 70%. We are becoming incredibly dependent on a handful of very large housebuilders and we need to get back to having the SMEs, the small and medium-sized housebuilders, getting back into business. Many were wiped out during the credit crunch, the recession, and we need them back again. This is a way of ensuring that they can come back, because what they lack is the opportunity to get their hands on land. This is made easy for them by the use of the custom-build technique and this amendment would help in that process. In Germany, they build something over 40% of all their housing on this basis of land being assembled and housebuilders building sometimes a single house but sometimes several houses on the plots that are made available.

There is a slightly sinister aspect to the bringing back of the SME housebuilders, which is the notion that the smaller housebuilders and those developing smaller sites—smaller housebuilders and smaller sites often go closely together, because the big players do not want to deal with small sites—would not in future have a requirement for the provision of affordable housing attached to the consent. It is a government concept, which has yet to be enshrined in any way but is subject to consultation, that sites with perhaps fewer than 10 homes would not be required to have any affordable housing within the mix. One might think that with 10 homes that does not much matter, but in rural areas nearly all the village schemes for affordable housing for local people are of fewer than 10 homes. Something like 70% of all rural schemes are of fewer than 10 homes. The thought that this will help small housebuilders to do more is misguided.

It is the land, which is the subject of this amendment, which is preventing the small players doing the kind of housebuilding they used to do. They cannot get their hands on sites. It is not that they need to have special concessions and reduce the amount of affordable housing that they build, just as it is not the case that smaller schemes should have the requirements removed from them for sustainable housing for the move towards carbon neutrality by 2016. This amendment seeks to bring back those small and medium-sized housebuilders. Those amendments which seek ways of lowering standards or of removing the requirement for affordability are missing the point. It is this one which would help bring back those housebuilders in such a way that we do not make any sacrifices in terms of quality.

Growth and Infrastructure Bill

Debate between Lord Best and Lord Tope

Tuesday 12th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Best]

My Lords, I rise to give fulsome support to this amendment. It addresses an issue which is high on the priority list of the Local Government Association, and I declare my interest as its president. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin of Roding, on those remarks, which will probably have more weight than anything I say, but perhaps I could add a little elaboration to the excellent points already made.

During the passage of this Growth and Infrastructure Bill, noble Lords from all parts of the House have noted that a key element in the growth agenda is the necessity to reduce the housing deficit—the acute and growing shortage of the homes that we need—and as in all previous recessions, to use housebuilding as a key engine for economic recovery. If we returned to housing output levels of just a few years ago—even then we were not building enough—we would add 1% to GDP. That is enough to lift the country above the threshold for an officially defined recession. That is the reason why the backing in the Financial Times today came not just from the bodies representing housing providers, but the CBI and representatives of British business and industry.

At present, there are few levers to pull to get housebuilding going again. Another part of this Bill is based on the hope that allowing housebuilders to cut back on their obligations to provide affordable housing will persuade them to start work on stalled sites. I hope that that part of the Bill, following our earlier deliberations, and the Minister’s helpful clarification of the Government’s intentions, will prove fit for purpose. However, it seems unlikely to make a huge difference. It is, of course, about less not more affordable housing—fewer homes at prices or rents that the next generation can afford.

This amendment, in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Shipley, Lord Tope, Lord Jenkin of Roding and myself, goes for a bigger prize—a real opportunity to get a lot of homes built for those on more modest incomes, and almost miraculously, without recourse to large amounts of public subsidy. The amendment would allow local authorities, within constraints required by the Secretary of State, to borrow prudentially and to use the security of their housing assets. Thereby, they will make a significant local contribution to meeting housing needs and boosting the output of the construction industry.

Not so very long ago, councils were building 200,000 homes in a single year. By 1990, the annual output was down to 14,000 new homes in 1990. Today, it has dropped to virtually zero. In London, for example, just 80 new homes were built by local authorities in the years 2003 to 2010. The Government’s admirable self-financing housing revenue account reforms should now make possible a programme of an average of 5,000 new homes, from councils, for each of the next five years. This is a good start, but local authorities have the capacity to do far better.

Many councils have sites—plots of vacant land, redundant council buildings and all those unsightly garages on estates that can be demolished. They now need the opportunity to borrow and repay from rental income, and indeed to use cross-subsidy from house sales in mixed tenure developments to boost affordable housing numbers. Very often, they would achieve these results through working in partnership with a housing association or a private sector builder. What they need is the current artificial constraints on their borrowing powers for housing purposes to be lifted.

The Chartered Institute of Housing, with the Local Government Association and others, set out the case in a report Let’s Get Building: The Case for Local Authority Investment in Rented Homes to Help Drive Economic Growth, by John Perry. This shows that another 60,000 homes would be built over the next few years if the lending cap was lifted. This represents an addition of 10% on top of the private sector’s efforts and the important work of housing associations, and that would make a real difference.

Why would the Government not wish to see this modest extension of local freedoms taken forward at a time when there are so very few other ways of stimulating growth and tackling the backlog of unmet housing need? The answer is that the extra borrowing would add to the total UK public sector debt. However, since this borrowing can be comfortably repaid, it does not add to the structural deficit. Also, extra taxes, benefit savings and reduced expenditure on temporary accommodation, et al, would immediately return much of the extra spending. As London Councils and CIPFA have pointed out, the borrowing caps are unnecessary given that councils are not subject to caps on their non-housing borrowing.

Moreover, there is an anomaly here, which the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, has pointed out. In the other countries of Europe, this kind of borrowing by the municipalities is counted as trading and falls outside the definition of public expenditure used by the EU, the IMF and the OECD. By inventing borrowing rules that are unique to the UK, we are tying one hand behind our backs, as Professor Steve Wilcox of York University, the real expert in this field, has been pointing out for many years.

I understand the dilemma facing the Treasury. The problem is that raising the cap or changing the definition used in this country to mirror that elsewhere could send out the wrong signal. Even if it is entirely justified and sensible, the impression could be given that the UK is taking a more relaxed view of borrowing in the public sector. However, the sums involved are small. Council borrowing accounts for just over 6% of the total, and the estimated extra £7 billion that would be borrowed over five years, if this amendment was accepted, is a small part of local government borrowing. Managing the presentation of this change should surely be possible.

Turning to housing associations as the key providers of affordable homes has worked well but has relied on them borrowing heavily as grant levels have been cut back. Many will run out of borrowing capacity in about two years’ time and many of these so-called registered providers will not then be in a position to keep up their current modest but important level of development. We are going to need to bring on stream another source of investment in rented affordable housing. Fortunately, just such a source of investment is at hand.

This is a carefully calibrated amendment that enables the Secretary of State to be cautious in raising the cap for each local authority’s housing investment as he so determines. But it opens up the possibility of a real opportunity to get some significant growth going of the most positive sort, boosting the economy by some £20 billion in return for borrowing £7 billion, without the need for subsidy, raising taxes or burdening the next generation. I believe that the time has come for the benefits that this amendment could undoubtedly achieve.

[Lord Tope]

My Lords, my name is also on this amendment, which was so ably moved by my noble friend Lord Shipley and spoken to very eloquently and powerfully by the noble Lords, Lord Jenkin of Roding and Lord Best. That leaves little more to be said other than to repeat what has been said, and I shall try to refrain from doing too much of that.

The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, referred to the letter in the Financial Times today. I have been able to supply the Minister with a copy of that letter during this debate. I think it is noteworthy to list the organisations that have signed that letter. Reference has been made to there being quite a number, but it would be useful to have the signatories on record. They are: London Councils, which represents all 32 London boroughs and the City of London; the British Property Federation; the Chartered Institute of Housing; the Home Builders Federation; the Local Government Association; London First; the Federation of Master Builders; the National Housing Federation; the New Local Government Network; the Royal Town Planning Institute; Shelter; and the Association of Retained Council Housing.

I read that out, deliberately, to get it on record and to show what a wide range of support the amendment has from local government, planning, and the housing sector. It is hard to think immediately of an appropriate organisation that has not signed the letter. There is now overwhelming support for the lifting of the borrowing cap. As the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, said, there are overwhelming reasons for doing so and it is hard to see why we should still be resisting it. As he and I recognise, the Minister who has the misfortune to have to reply to this debate is not the person who will be in a position to do anything about this. We all recognise that we are addressing our remarks, not to the Minister who will reply in a few minutes, but to the Chancellor of the Exchequer who has a speech to make next week. He must urgently recognise this need. The noble Lord, Lord Best, has referred to the message he is concerned about sending out. The message the Government want to send out, which is shared on all sides of this House, is that there is an urgent need to get building. That is the important message from this debate. The Bill must recognise the need for more housing. It must also recognise the need for growth which is in the title of the Bill and which many of us feel the Bill is not yet doing enough to achieve.

We therefore urge the Chancellor, through the Minister who will reply shortly, seriously to consider lifting the cap or, at the very least, sending a clear and strong message that that is the Government’s intention. Reference has already been made to the international consideration that the United Kingdom is the only country in the EU not to use the internationally recognised rules. If we were to do so, it would have very little effect in terms of the message to which the noble Lord, Lord Best, referred. I understand that, standing on this side of the Chamber, praying in aid of the European Union is not always to my advantage, but on this occasion the Government should give serious consideration to that. I hope the Minister will surprise us all, stand up and say that the Government are now ready and able to accept the amendment and that the cap will be raised in the way suggested. If that does not happen today, I hope we will see a more positive move in a few days’ time in another place. If that cannot happen now—I would need to understand in the next week or two why it cannot happen now—will the Government at least reassess the borrowing ability under the current cap? Will they speed up consideration of the consultation on the use of other means, such as using local government pension funds?

The Government want to send a message that they are serious about housebuilding. They also want building to start happening and to start getting building completions. If that is to be achieved in the period of office of the current Government, it needs to be happening this year. It is urgent. The amendment proposes an internationally recognised way of achieving that. I hope the Minister can give us some indication of support and that next week we will get a better and clearer indication from the other place.

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[Lord Tope]

My Lords, I rise once again to move on behalf of the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, Amendment 40C and to speak to the other amendments standing in his name in this group.

These are amendments to Clause 14 and Schedule 4, which amend the Commons Act 2006 by inserting a new Clause 15C and a new Schedule 1A. Their effect is to restrict the right of persons to apply to register land as a town or village green on the basis that it has been used by persons for at least 20 years as of right for lawful sports and pastimes—that is to say, informal recreation, openly, without hindrance and without permission.

The new provisions end the right to apply for registration if a trigger event occurs. These are basically of two kinds: first, the publication of an application for planning permission on the land, or a similar action such as an application for development consent; or the publication for consultation of a draft development plan document—that is, a document that is proposed to form part of the local development framework or “local plan”—or a draft neighbourhood plan. In this context we welcome government Amendments 42 to 45 on neighbourhood plans, which appear to deal with some of our concerns in relation to those plans.

The trigger events are set out in the schedule. However, new Section 15C(5)(a) gives the Secretary of State powers to, “specify … additional trigger … events” by order. The purpose of Amendment 40C, therefore, is to ask the Minister to specify why the Government think they need these powers and what these further trigger events might be, and what the Government have in mind to use this rather draconian power for.

The other amendments are intended to assist the Government in their stated wish to align the system for registering greens with the planning system in cases where there is a published proposal for development, either as a planning application or as a draft of part of a local plan. Unfortunately, the proposals in the Bill do not do this. The problem is that there are two separate and different systems. The system for registering greens, set out in the Commons Act 2006 and rooted in the common law, is based on the facts of the case—whether the land has been used by persons for at least 20 years as of right for lawful sports and pastimes. It is based on the facts of past use of land.

Decisions in the planning system are a matter of policy and opinion about the future use of land. It is difficult to reconcile the two—to align them—but not impossible. The way this Bill deals with the matter is not to align the two processes, but to suspend one of them—the right to apply to register a green—when a trigger event occurs under the planning system.

We accept that the Government believe that there is a problem of misuse of the system of greens registration by some people in order to try to stop development, and that there is a weight of opinion behind this view. In Committee we moved amendments to probe the extent of this and its necessity. Now we are proposing ways in which both rights can be aligned within one process—the planning process—giving the Government what they want while retaining the effective right of people to put forward a view that a piece of land is a green, and to have that properly considered as part of the planning process. The amendments we have put forward suggest ways of doing this and could be taken individually. They are not necessarily a package.

Amendment 41B is the simplest, and just seeks to incorporate within the system of development management the question of whether a piece of land is a town or village green under the criteria set out in Section 15 of the Commons Act. It simply says that, where such a representation is made as part of the development management process, this question is a material consideration. Of course, like any other such representation it may be accepted or rejected by the relevant decision-making authority. It should not slow down the process of making the decision in any significant way.

The first part of Amendment 45A says that where the trigger event is the publication of a draft development plan document, which includes a proposal for a piece of land that has not previously been in the public domain, the trigger event should not occur until three months following the date of that publication. This may occur, for instance, if a last-minute change is made to a draft development plan document covering land allocation, as a result of representations made as part of a previous round of consultation on that question, such as on a housing land availability study. It would still allow a green registration application to be made. The second part of Amendment 45A will in most cases be covered by the government Amendments 42 to 45, for which I have already thanked the Minister. However, we recognise that this may be a step too far for the Government. So Amendment 45B states that if representations are made to a local planning authority or a neighbourhood planning body, as part of the normal consultations on a local plan or a neighbourhood development plan, that a particular piece of land is a town or village green, the authority must consider them having regard to the criteria set out in Section 15 of the Commons Act.

Although the appropriate authority would not have the power to designate and register the land as a green, applying the same criteria in this way would indeed align the two processes, which is what Ministers promised that they wanted to do, whether or not a trigger event has occurred. If the planning authority considers that the land qualifies as a green it could of course then be referred on to the commons registration authority for it to consider in the normal way. We expect this would be in a small minority of cases. However, the time taken to produce local plans would mean there is time for this process to take place. We emphasise that this procedure would only apply in plan making, which inevitably takes years rather than weeks, and not in the case of planning applications and the like which should be dealt with speedily.

These amendments are put forward in a positive way, in an effort to reconcile—indeed to align—the planning and green registration systems. In the disappointing event that the Minister is unable to accept them today, perhaps he can answer the following questions. There are six. If the intention is to align the system, what consideration can the planning bodies give during the plan-making process to representations that a piece of land qualifies as a town or village green, either as part of the local plan process or a neighbourhood plan? Secondly, if a planning authority or neighbourhood planning body considers a piece of land to be a green on the basis of the criteria in Section 15 of the Commons Act, what action may it take to promote or pursue that view?

Thirdly, what precise action in the submission and consideration of an application for planning permission or development consent will constitute publication, and so constitute a trigger event? Fourthly, in the case of a draft development plan document, would the trigger event be the publication of a report to the local planning authority which included the details of the DPD; would it be the formal publication for consultation of the DPD following a council decision to publish a consultation; or when?

Fifthly, could the publication, for consultation or otherwise, of any prior reports intended to form part of the evidence base for a DPD but not forming a draft DPD as such, be the trigger event for those purposes? Lastly, can the question of whether a piece of land is a town or village green, having regard to the criteria set out in Section 15 of the Commons Act or otherwise, be a material consideration in the case of an application for planning permission or development consent?

I hope that the Minister will at least be able to provide clarity on those detailed but important questions. If he cannot do so today, perhaps we could return briefly to them at Third Reading, to allow him to do so. My noble friend Lord Greaves has promised me that, if that is the case, he will table only a simple amendment enabling those answers to be given. I beg to move.

[Lord Best]

My Lords, I urge caution about accepting the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves. Any watering down of the Government’s proposals would be cause for concern. The Government’s propositions are supported by the Local Government Association, the National Housing Federation, Shelter, the Home Builders Federation, the British Property Federation, the Federation of Master Builders and, indeed, the Country Land and Business Association.

I mentioned during Committee the case of the 50-acre site on the east of York which, on the grounds that it had been used, without permission, for dog walking over the past 20 years was the subject of a village green proposal. The intention was simply to prevent, or, rather, to delay—as a 50-acre village green was never a realistic proposition—a much-needed mixed-tenure housing development by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and its housing trust, of which I declare a past interest as its previous chief executive. The delays that then ensued, the legal fees and the staff time over several months were costly and wasteful. The objectors to the housing scheme—which, I am delighted to say, is now being built, and a wonderful development it is too—were simply taking advantage of well intended legislation that, sadly, lent itself to such abuse.

The Government’s intent, which, I believe, their proposals will achieve, is that false claims are swiftly revealed. It would lead to all genuine registrations receiving fair and robust consideration and maintain the primacy of the democratically elected local plan. I urge caution in accepting the amendments tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves.

Local Government Finance Bill

Debate between Lord Best and Lord Tope

Tuesday 3rd July 2012 Grand Committee

[Lord Best]

My Lords, I would like to speak to Amendment 16, which comes before the amendments in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin. I declare my interest as president of the Local Government Association. I express thanks to my various vice-presidents, particularly to the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, for an exposition in very eloquent terms on the point covered by my rather cruder Amendment 16.

The LGA, representing district, metropolitan and county councils of all political hues, as the noble Lord has said, has expressed disquiet that there is to be a division of the business rates that retain so much central control, despite the positive rhetoric of localism. The LGA recognises that central government wants to keep a firm hand on local government finances during the period of deficit reduction covered by the current spending review, not least to impress the international financial markets that deficit reduction is being taken very seriously. The measures in the Bill are likely to last well beyond that deficit reduction timescale and local government at large is keen to ensure that the retention by central government of 50% of all business rates revenues, and indeed 50% of any business rate growth, shall not be maintained after its purpose has been fulfilled.

This amendment calls for central government to discontinue its retention of a share in local government business rates revenue after 2014-15; that is, after the last financial year in the current spending review period. I recognise that the Government may well be keen to extend the period a little longer because their deficit reduction objectives are likely to go on beyond 2015. However, the LGA, London Councils and others representing local government all agree that that top-slicing of business rates revenues by central government needs some clear end date. The 50% top-slicing greatly restrains the ability of local government to benefit fully from its support for any business rate growth and undermines the localism agenda of devolving powers away from the Secretary of State to local government.

In responding, perhaps the Minister could address one aspect of this concept of a central share of all business rates. I know that the Government have stated their intention to return the revenues that they receive through this arrangement to local government. That certainly sounds as though the Government’s intentions are not to redirect resources away from local spending, but it is unclear how the funding received by the Government will be returned to local authorities and what conditions are likely to be attached to it. Clarification on just how that somewhat circular movement of finance will operate would be much appreciated. The underlying point of the amendment is to draw out the Government’s view on just how long this central government control over half the business rates should last. I entirely support the comments on that from the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin.

[Lord Tope]

My Lords, my noble friends and I have added our names to Amendments 12, 16, 17, 21 and 22, which have been very ably spoken to by the noble Lords, Lord Jenkin and Lord Best. I shall not repeat all that they said; suffice it to say that I agree with everything that they said. The noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, made some mention of the disappointment in local government when the 50:50 split was announced. That was profound perhaps because local government was expecting more, given the rhetoric from the Government when the so-called repatriation of the business rate was first announced, something for which all parties in local government have strived ever since my noble friend Lord Jenkin nationalised it some years ago. So there was an expectation. He has repented many times since then—and blessed is the sinner.

Localism Bill

Debate between Lord Best and Lord Tope

Monday 31st October 2011 Lords Chamber

[Lord Tope]

My Lords, as the noble Baroness has just said, the Minister has moved a long way since we last debated this. We all accepted the strong desirability of resolving these matters locally whenever possible, but we realised during or even before that debate that it had an unintended consequence of giving the designated person the right of veto. I do not think that that was what the Government intended and I am pleased that they have recognised that, and that it has been removed. Once again, I thank the Minister for not only listening but for acting. At this late hour at this very late stage of the Bill I do not propose to debate further whether it should be six or eight weeks. I am just glad that we have got to where we have.

[Lord Best]

Once again the House of Lords consideration of this Bill has led to a really sensible change to the legislation. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, alongside the noble Lord, Lord Newton—I have supported these amendments all the way—on persuading the Minister who I know has handled this with great distinction. On behalf of all the organisations which have been extremely worried about this and all the people whose complaints will now be better handled, I thank the Minister very much.