Housing and Planning Bill

Debate between Viscount Younger of Leckie and Duke of Somerset

Wednesday 23rd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

Of course, I believe it will be best for me to include the technical details in the letter that I am already writing and will place in the Library of the House.

[The Duke of Somerset]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for his very full reply and the two noble Lords who have contributed to this short debate. Some of what we heard was good news; some of the rest not so good. I am sure that the noble Lords who tabled the amendments will, like myself, take great care in reading the reply.

The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, knows that the Committee has debated on a number of occasions his feelings about acquisition values. May I repeat what has been said on other occasions? Expropriation simply means that less land will come forward. It has been tried twice before and each time the development land tax has been a failure and has been withdrawn. Basically, any gains made through the sale of development land are taxed through the normal tax system. Finally, a lot of community benefit is funded out of the market value of these developments. I therefore do not go along with his hypothesis.

I look forward to hearing more about the consultation and thank the Minister for his reply. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.