Growth and Infrastructure Bill

Debate between Lord Herbert of South Downs and John Redwood

Monday 17th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Nick Herbert]

My hon. Friend is exactly right. It is a related issue. Although regional spatial strategies are being abolished—which is overdue but nevertheless welcome—there is a widespread fear among local authorities that planning inspectors will overturn their own assessments of the level of need in local areas, and that they will be unable to balance what could, in many areas, be a near-infinite level of demand with their ability to provide housing.

[Mr Redwood]

My right hon. Friend has made an interesting point about need and demand. The Government have stated clearly that they will cut net inward migration from a quarter of a million a year to a few tens of thousands. Presumably councils should take into account the sharp deceleration in the need for new households.

[Nick Herbert]

That raises the question of the process whereby councils are now assessing need, and the potential confusion between need and demand. I think that communities will feel cheated if, having been promised the abolition of the top-down housing target that was set by the last Government—effectively by means of the regional spatial strategies—they see it returning through the back door in the shape of a planning inspector, and if local authorities find that they have no choice but to provide a level of housing that they consider to be unsustainable.