Housing and Planning Bill
Debate between Lord Porter of Spalding and Lord Marlesford
Lord Marlesford (Con)
My Lords, I support this important amendment. It is important because we are talking about the grass-roots of democracy. I believe that the Conservative Party supports the grass-roots of democracy but it must demonstrate that it is prepared to encourage, listen to and respect them. There is no point in saying that they do not matter and that an outside developer has a pre-emption to overrule local opinion. Almost by definition, local opinion is well-informed. It may be controversial but it sorts itself out at the grass-roots and it is most important that we support this amendment, or something very like it. The Government may have different views but it is a very limited and modest amendment.
The role of parish councils in the planning system, supported by neighbourhood plans, is extremely important. First, that is because they are local and have people who know what it is all about; secondly, they are an important factor in the integrity of a planning system. I should declare that I am chairman of the Marlesford parish council. An important aspect of the planning system is that elected councillors on planning authorities have time to consider only very few planning applications, most of which are passed on the nod. Many years ago, when I was on Suffolk County Council, we had two lists: list A and list B. The meetings were never long enough to consider those on list A, which is the one we were invited to consider, and in practice we had to pass those on list B on the nod. I remember saying to myself, “If I really wanted to get something through, whatever local councillors might think, if I could get it on to list B I would be home and dry”. Parish councils are therefore an important safety check, not just in terms of expressing local views on proposals but in ensuring the integrity of the planning system. The sort of provision proposed by the noble Baroness is therefore an important step and I hope the Government will look sympathetically at doing something along these lines.
Lord Porter of Spalding (Con)
My Lords, I had not intended to speak to these amendments and I do not really want to, but I need to refute the claims that councils pass planning applications on the nod. The vast majority of planning applications are quite clearly policy-compliant, which is why almost nine out of 10 are granted. They are not passed on the nod but passed by delegated powers because they are planning-compliant. The ones that are controversial either locally or, more importantly, because they are not policy-compliant will be the ones dealt with in planning committees, which do not need to see all the planning applications. They need to have faith in the professionally trained planning officers to be able to work to policy-compliant applications. I just do not want any of your Lordships to be under any misapprehension that councils pass planning applications on the nod.