Council Tax
Debate between Lord Campbell-Savours and Baroness Hanham
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, it was made clear from the outset that the transitional grant would be for one year and one year only. Therefore, I do not anticipate that the question asked by the noble Lord will be answered in a way that he would like.
Lord Campbell-Savours
Is the Minister aware of the culture of non-compliance referred to by my noble friend Lady Hollis?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, people are required to pay their council tax and I am sure that local authorities will make certain that they collect any arrears that are owed to them as necessary.
Planning: Onshore Wind
Debate between Lord Campbell-Savours and Baroness Hanham
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, the Statement refers to major applications. However, as I suggested in the Statement, where wind farms become cumulative it seems to me that that will need to be taken into account.
Lord Campbell-Savours
My Lords, what estimate has been made of the potential decline in the number of wind farm approvals to be made in the United Kingdom? What form is the public benefit—this buying of local communities—going to take? Can we have some more detail on how that will work?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, this does not change what the National Planning Policy Framework lays out at the moment. It advises that local people should be consulted about major planning applications. The Statement says that it will be amended so that they must be consulted. That then makes it a material consideration for the decision on planning applications and must be taken into account. Whether that increases or decreases the number of approvals given will become clearer, but, one way or the other, it seems to us essential that local people, who will feel the impact of wind farms—indeed, who already have experience of them—have a proper say on any future proposal.
Bailiffs
Debate between Lord Campbell-Savours and Baroness Hanham
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, as I said initially, the local authority is entitled to come to arrangements with bailiffs on fees and whatever charges are made. The guidance will make clear what local authorities can do, but I agree with the noble Lord that anything that looks like a cosy arrangement between the bailiffs employed and local authorities is thoroughly undesirable.
Lord Campbell-Savours
Can we be assured that the fee structure would preclude the local authority making any profit?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, the local authority’s responsibility is to retrieve the debt in any way it can. I think the noble Lord is referring back to the Question about what arrangements are made with the debtors who are going to collect those debts, financially. I have said pretty clearly that there will be very clear guidance on what they can and cannot do, and that cosy business arrangements are thoroughly unsatisfactory.
Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Debate between Lord Campbell-Savours and Baroness Hanham
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, my noble friend said “benefit to the developer”. The development is limited to the curtilage of the building and the benefit is to the person who owns the property and who wants to extend it, for their own use, to a limited extent—to have a new kitchen or whatever they need. I hear what my noble friend says but, first, the amount is limited to the curtilage and, secondly, it would be expected that consultation would take place.
There are many people who wish to do smallish extensions to their houses. The noble Lord, Lord True, suggests this is “garden-grabbing” but it is their garden and the garden-grabbing we have talked about in the past has been new developments in back gardens which are clearly not just modest extensions to people’s houses. It is probably not very good to deny people the benefits of being able to extend their houses somewhat.
Lord Campbell-Savours
I am sorry, but this is just agony. What are the origins of this proposal? It was not in the coalition manifesto, it was not in the Conservative manifesto, it was not in the Liberal Democrat manifesto. Where has it come from? What are the origins of this nonsense?
Housing: Rural Areas
Debate between Lord Campbell-Savours and Baroness Hanham
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I am delighted to hear what the noble Baroness has to say because we sometimes hear that nothing is happening in the north, while it is clear that it is, because we have had other examples in this House over the past few weeks. That, therefore, is extremely good news, and I am glad that Northumberland is making use of legislation, as it can, to best effect.
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, we have made it clear, in the National Planning Policy Framework, that the green belt is virtually sacrosanct, but we recognise that occasionally green belt land needs to be used for affordable housing, although that will need to be replaced. Some green belt land, as the noble Lord knows, is not absolutely brilliant land, so where you can use that rather than going into real open space, it should be used. However, we need affordable housing, and we recognise that.
Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Debate between Lord Campbell-Savours and Baroness Hanham
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, this is a matter of view between us. Our view is that things will become clearer over the coming months and local authorities will know whether they are bordering on designation. They will know that help will be available if they are designated and that they will be encouraged to improve. That will be the tension. The designation can cease following an annual review. I do not think that that will be too much of a tension if we decide not to accept the amendment and the promoters agree with that.
I have an enormous number of points here in front of me on questions that have been quite general. I could make a Second Reading response if the Committee would like that, but we are trying to deal with the performance of local authorities and planning authorities. We also note that some local authorities will receive only a small number of applications, and that is one reason for looking at the figures over two years. We accept that there are differences between one local authority and another.
My noble friend Lord Deben, who is my real friend, also suggested that this power was anti-localism. It is not. It does not take away a local planning authority’s ability to continue to deal with planning applications, but it provides that if an authority is designated, a developer has the right to decide whether it wants the local authority to carry on dealing with the application or take it to the Secretary of State. Developers already have the right to go to the Secretary of State if an application is not completed within 13 weeks. That will of course be one means whereby local authorities can be designated if they are not performing within a statutory area.
Lord Campbell-Savours
I have sat through the whole debate and I keep asking myself a simple question: how can we be sure that there will be no political consideration when a Secretary of State decides who is to be designated? How would one authority know that it had been treated as fairly or unfairly as another, given that the information is to be held within the department regarding the extent to which an authority breached the criteria that are the subject of the consultation?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, that relates to the consultation, which we are moving on to in Amendment 2. Perhaps we might follow the amendments in order, because people have gone to a lot of trouble on that.