Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Baroness Andrews Excerpts

Wednesday 14th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Andrews]

My Lords, I am sure that noble Lords would want me to say how splendid it is to see the noble Baroness back in the Chamber and to congratulate her on a very powerful speech. I am afraid I will not be able to follow what she said because I have to talk about the clauses that reflect heritage protection. I hope that she will forgive me. I therefore turn to Part 5 of the Bill, which deals with the way in which we manage our heritage in England. As chair of English Heritage, I must obviously declare an interest.

It is a great responsibility to live in an old country and, by and large, we live up to that responsibility to a global standard of excellence. However, there are risks and difficulties facing our heritage now. In our recent annual report on heritage at risk, our list included nearly 6,000 listed buildings and archaeological and other sites that are threatened one way or another—and that excludes almost all grade 2 buildings, which are the ordinary fabric of our towns and cities. We have to find better ways of incentivising owners and guardians to take better care of our heritage, and ways of simplifying processes. I am delighted to say that this Bill does some of that and, for the most part, I welcome it.

I start specifically by welcoming Clause 54, which the Minister has already referred to. It refers to Osborne House; many noble Lords will know Osborne House and its collections very well. English Heritage has invested considerably in recent years in the house, the private beach that belonged to Queen Victoria and, indeed, her bathing machine. Unfortunately, that is not available for public use but it is very beautiful. Clause 54 repeals those parts of the Osborne Estate Act that restrict the use of the site and is very welcome. In this context, when we are discussing ways to promote growth in this country, it is absolutely vital that our historic sites and buildings can play their full part in generating economic, social and environmental benefits and regeneration. This clause will allow English Heritage to manage the site with a bit more freedom while protecting and enhancing it, so that even more people can enjoy Queen Victoria’s extraordinary domestic and national legacy.

I was also extremely pleased that the Bill has picked up four of the provisions that were in the draft heritage protection Bill, which was regrettably dropped at the last moment from the last legislative programme of the previous Government. Clauses 52 and 55 and Schedule 17 cover these provisions, and these changes will bring a simpler, speedier and more constructive consent system for heritage protection. I want to mention four of these reforms briefly today. The first change is the replacement of the requirement to apply for conservation area consent with a requirement for planning permission in the same circumstances. That is a modest but sensible efficiency because, at the moment, conservation area consent applications are often accompanied by planning applications that cover the redevelopment of the site. This change means that one application rather than two will have to be made.

The second change will allow the description of the extent of a listed building and the nature of the special interest in it to be more precise. Essentially, it means that we can ensure that people are not left wondering whether the charmless 1970s office extension to a beautiful, characterful Victorian office needs protecting. That is an extremely important development because, at a time of dwindling resources and the catastrophic loss of expertise in this field, it will help those involved in managing change to listed buildings to focus on what really matters. We have to make the best use of declining resources.

The third change will allow an owner of an unlisted building to apply at any time for a certificate of immunity from listing. At the moment these can be applied for only when a planning application has been made, at a time when the owner has already made a substantial investment in the future of the site. Again, this is a good change which will allow owners and developers to resolve any constraints that the listing system may place on the development potential of a site at the earliest opportunity.

The final change, drawn from the heritage protection Bill, is the new scheme of heritage partnership agreements. These are voluntary agreements between an owner and a local planning authority. They will cover how a listed building should be managed and in so doing may grant listed building consent for certain works. This is a significant step forward, particularly in relation to large sites. The agreements have the potential to save a considerable amount of time and paperwork and will do away with the raft of minor applications that tend to swamp the desks of conservation officers.

However, I have a very important caveat for the Minister. As presently drafted, I am concerned that the Bill does not replicate the legal requirement for the local authority to consider the desirability of preserving the listed building, as currently applies to all listed building and relevant planning applications. This, by definition, is the core requirement in primary legislation. It is the raison d’être for the listed building regulation. I recognise that the regulating powers given to the Secretary of State will allow for this core decision-making principle to be reintroduced in secondary legislation. However, I believe that it is so fundamental to the purpose of the listed building regime that it ought to be back in primary legislation. Indeed, I think we are looking at some inconsistent drafting here because I note that for local listed building consent orders—which I will come on to in a moment—this statutory requirement to consider the conservation objective has been replicated. I can certainly write to the Minister to clarify that.

I am sure that the Government will be able to confirm that there is no intention to reduce heritage protection levels—the Minister said as much in his opening remarks—and that the provisions of Section 16(2) of the 1990 Act will effectively be reintroduced for heritage partnership agreements through regulations. I suggest that something so fundamental must be in primary legislation. With that one proviso, I very warmly welcome the proposals as I think they are good for owners and users.

I now turn briefly to the other changes that have arisen from Adrian Penfold’s review. More than 400 organisations and people responded to some very controversial proposals. However, I was very reassured to see that the Government have listened very carefully to their views and I can support in principle what has been incorporated into the Bill, although there are a few points we need clarified.

I support the idea of a system of local listed building consent orders which would allow local authorities to set aside the need for listed building consent for certain types of work. They will find that very useful where they are confident that works of a common type are appropriate. However, I do not think that there is a need for an annual report. The Secretary of State should give the power to set an appropriate period for reporting. I suggest that five years might be better.

The Bill also empowers the Secretary of State to grant national class consents—that is for a group of assets that cross local authority boundaries. It potentially covers the whole of England. This is rather controversial and has been seen as so by the heritage community. I can see some benefit in specific circumstances, such as for organisations with widely dispersed historic infrastructure where works of a type to buildings of a type have been assessed. For example, you can imagine the newly formed Canal and River Trust benefiting from such an arrangement in relation to locks. The problem is the breadth of discretion that this gives the Secretary of State, particularly in relation to listed buildings which are so different and so refined, which, of course, is why they are listed. There is concern that a general national class consent order, saying something about the works that could be done to listed buildings without consent, could not conceivably be so sensitive that it did not have some perverse or damaging consequences.

I know that the solution has been borrowed from the planning system. It does not work when it is transferred like this. I hope that the Government may be clear on the intended use of the national class consent power and will undertake only to use it to allow a specific organisation, such as an infrastructure owner, to carry out specific works to specific buildings or a class of building.

Finally, while I very much support the introduction of certificates of lawfulness of proposed works to listed buildings, I do not think that Clause 53 will achieve its objectives. The proposed certificates are simple mechanisms but they do not offer, for example, the owner of the listed building sufficient certainty for long enough that the works are going to be lawful because you have to specify what is special about the building. I will write to the Minister setting out our concerns about that and similarly our concerns that the certificates will potentially last for ever, which again introduces a rigidity to the system that we would not want to see. That is a problem as well.

There is a great deal in regulation and it is notable how much of the processes for heritage partnership agreements, and so on, have been left to secondary legislation. We do not have those regulations yet. I hope we will have them before we get to the Committee stage. I would welcome confirmation from the Minister that the regulations will essentially reflect those in place for listed building consent, as far as appropriate, and maintain current levels of protection.

These are welcome changes. They will liberate parts of our national assets to play a greater role in creating wealth, which is exactly what we want to see. Heritage is part of the solution to the economic challenges we are facing. I look forward to the Bill’s Committee stage.