Growth and Infrastructure Bill

Annette Brooke Excerpts

Monday 5th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

My starting point is that I want to support and achieve growth in our economy and good-quality infrastructure, but I also want good-quality local planning decisions. I have reservations about certain aspects of the Bill, and I seek reassurance.

As the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (Joan Walley) reminded us, a great deal of time was spent on the Floor of the House and in various Committees debating the national policy planning framework, which has only recently been approved—in particular, the need for a definition of sustainability that encompassed environmental, economic and social factors. Personally, I was very pleased with the final wording and outcomes. I thought it was an example of good government: Government listening and making changes to the draft document as a consequence of consultation.

In our consideration of the Bill, we must not lose sight of the underlying principles that we have only just agreed. I am concerned that the Bill appears to propose a massive shift away from local decision making to a centralised approach. At the very least, there should be a clear evidence base for the proposals, as well as full scrutiny of their potential outcomes. In addition, the question should be asked: can we achieve the stated objectives in a better, more effective way that would be compatible with local decision making and local community involvement?

I would like to look at four of the areas in the Bill concerning planning, the first of which is the designation of a local planning authority, with the Planning Inspectorate making the decisions. It is interesting to note the cross-party Local Government Association view of this proposal as counter-productive, centralist and at odds with localism. That raises the question of whether planning is the problem, and I am not at all sure that I would follow entirely the analysis made by the hon. Member for Henley (John Howell).

Clause 1 provides the Secretary of State with a wide-ranging power to remove planning decisions from the local level, but it does not provide any detail of the criteria. What scale of intervention are we talking about? Are we talking about intervening on a handful of authorities, or dozens of authorities? That is highly significant. We are asked to think about speed and quality of decision making. Clearly, there is a lot of variation in council performance in meeting the time targets on both minor and major applications, but we need a starting point to look at the reasons, with the Department—perhaps it has done so already; I would be happy to learn of it—working with the local authority and asking: what is it that is holding up the authority’s decision making? What is it that means councils are missing the determination targets for eight weeks and 13 weeks?

I represent an area that includes some small district councils. Their planning departments have a heavy work load in relation to the number of officers employed. The question of whether that is a matter of the council reallocating its resources, or adequate resources being provided, needs to be addressed. All in all, it seems to be a massive decision to take planning decisions from a local authority, but I am not at all sure, from what I have heard, that it is as big as it sounds. It could just be sensible intervention: working with local authorities, establishing the facts, proceeding, and then, perhaps at the end of the line there may be a case for taking stronger action with one or two authorities. However, my reading suggests that the Bill could permit a massive intervention.

I am concerned about the potential scale of the changes to section 106 agreements. Section 106s have delivered affordable housing. We know that councils are already overwhelmingly responding to changed economic circumstances, including renegotiating section 106 agreements voluntarily, and they can do that within the context of their local plans. I am not clear on the evidence that it is the affordable housing element of section 106s which, on a very large scale, is holding up planning applications. If we had that evidence, it would be much easier to make a good decision. We need to identify and sort out the problems. A big worry about losing section 106 housing requirements is that there will be no general consideration of development plan policy, such as the need for homes at a range of prices in local communities. The National Housing Federation mentions the rural exception sites, for example, which are of course very dear to my heart.

The policy could be counter-productive, and I ask the Minister to address that concern. There is a risk of stronger local opposition to developer plans if the perception grows that new developments will be just for expensive new homes, or, as in my area, for more second homes, and that local people will end up with no affordable homes. Having an assurance that there would be homes for local young people would mean that the community could sign up to them, and that is important.

There could be further delays to housing, with developers waiting for the Bill to be implemented.

[Alison Seabeck]

Will the hon. Lady give way?

[Annette Brooke]

I would like to proceed.

Enforced renegotiation means that benefits from 106 agreements may be lost for ever, regardless of the needs and views of the local community. If renegotiation outcomes were in line with local planning policies, I cannot see why a local council would not renegotiate on a voluntary basis. Developers’ profits will rise, but how transparent and independent will the appraisals be of the viability of a development with and without the section 106 obligations? It is important to have mixed communities of housing. One of my favourite places that I visit is a large housing estate. As I knock on the doors, I do not know which house was built originally as social housing and which was built originally as private housing—that is what we must aspire to. My problem is that even if the developer finds that a development is not economically viable and we all agree with that in a transparent way, we would lose that social housing. Could the £300 million not be targeted to make sure that the local planning authority keeps the housing it needs?

[Mr Betts]

The hon. Lady is giving a thoughtful and careful critique of the Bill. Given that she will vote later not on the warm words of Ministers but on what is actually in the Bill, will she indicate what would cause her to support the Bill given her critique so far?

--- Later in debate ---

[Annette Brooke]

I am indicating clearly that a large number of areas need to be scrutinised very carefully, and that it would be wrong for me not to raise my concerns.

I want to look at positive measures, too. For example, Eastleigh council has worked well to secure affordable housing, achieving the mixed developments to which we aspire. It has worked with developers to offer a guaranteed purchase model for developers that have sites with existing planning permission but which are unsure whether they could sell the houses and where, as a result, development has stalled. The council offered to act as a purchaser of last resort if the developers could not sell them. The developers then went ahead and built new homes, and so far the council has not had to buy any new stock, and will rent out any it does purchase at a discounted rate. There is a lot of scope for innovation, if we truly believe in localism and give those powers to local councils.

On the designation of town and village greens, I have examples of applications holding up development, but I do not have overriding evidence that it is the case. The evidence is anecdotal. That again is why we need to scrutinise the proposals carefully. Through neighbourhood plans backed up by the national planning policy framework, the local designation of green open spaces is a good way forward. We have to move from one system to the other, however, and I am concerned that the transition will not be a smooth one, because there remain cases in all our constituencies where we want open spaces protected but where, for example, the neighbourhood plan has not been worked up sufficiently. Some major groups are not satisfied with the explanations given so far, and we must come up with clear reassurances and a clear outline of the transition from one system to the other. Urban green spaces, as well as the long-established village greens, are very important, so we need these assurances. I ask Ministers to address that point tonight.

Finally, on electronic and communications infrastructure, there are fears that the proposals could cause serious damage to designated landscapes, including national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. As I know from my own constituency, where access in rural areas is lagging, the Government are right to prioritise broadband access in rural areas, but it must be possible to roll out superfast broadband in these areas and conserve beauty at the same time. Again, I am concerned about irreversible damage. We have to get this right.

We should also consider historic urban locations that could be damaged by inappropriately placed street cabinets, which, under the proposals, as I understand them, could be placed in any areas other than sites of special scientific interest. Throughout this, I am thinking of both urban and rural areas, because the same theme applies to both. Is there evidence that the proposals will deliver what the Government—and I—want? It is a difficult time. We have rightly scrapped regional spatial strategies, and we have introduced many excellent measures, but they need time to bed in. We need time to look at each case carefully, to consider the evidence and to look outside the box—for example, at lifting the cap on local authority borrowing in order to jump-start the housing market.