Draft National Planning Policy Framework

Baroness Hamwee Excerpts

Thursday 27th October 2011 Grand Committee

[Baroness Hamwee]

My Lords, I predict that this debate will fail to satisfy many people. None of us will be able to say everything that we want to say, and those outside this House with an interest will be frustrated that we have not been able to. I think that the Minister must have the hardest time on this, having to button her lip—which she does most graciously— as she of course cannot pre-empt the Government’s response to the consultation. The comments on the document have shot planning into the headlines and across the airwaves. I have found this—and I know I share this with many noble Lords—very distressing. As someone who wants to see more housing, am I now on the “wrong” side? There should not be sides, because growth and sustainability are not mutually exclusive. What an interesting task the Government have set themselves. They have reduced 1,300 pages or so into around 50. I have been wondering whether it is a sensible task and am not convinced that it is. It is overambitious, perhaps; or naive maybe.

I welcome making planning rules accessible and demystifying them. I have never thought that we should approach any sort of rules as job creation for lawyers. They should be intelligible to people who read normal language. However, simplifying is not simple. The noble Lord, Lord Hart, drawing on his experience as a practitioner, made the point far better than I on 13 October. Is the document too short to be adequate? Not necessarily, but it probably is. I am not qualified to assess what policies from the current draft of statements cannot be—or have not been—fitted into 50-odd pages. I assume that the Government have analysed in detail what has been omitted. It does not seem to me that the impact assessment that has been published, which identifies 18 headline points, I think, can be complete. Of course, we do not know and we will not know what went between the CLG and the Treasury—or, more likely, in the opposite direction.

A lot of money is associated with planning. When I was a councillor in a London borough and chaired a planning committee, it felt a very unbalanced position: a developer with deep pockets against an overstretched local planning authority acting on behalf of its community. There will be minute examination of the new framework—already cited as emerging policy—compared to the previous statements. Will it be made unequivocally clear that the previous statements have been cancelled when the new framework takes effect? The Government are never overjoyed when courts intervene, as they see it, in policy, but I fear that we will have another episode of what may be regarded as judicial policy-making when they attempt to interpret the framework.

A good deal of the document is welcome—the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker, mentioned design—but there are a lot of gaps between the lines and, indeed, between policy areas. The style seems to me to be more narrative than policy. My noble friend Lord Greaves called it a narrative when he spoke on 13 October. Either that or it begs questions. When is a local plan not up to date? Noble Lords will recognise that question from paragraph 26. What is,

“viable infrastructure necessary to support sustainable economic growth”?

Viable means capable of independent life. Are not those two phrases contradictory to one another? Viable infrastructure is not my understanding of the role of infrastructure.

What should we understand by the need to,

“attach very significant weight to the desirability of establishing new schools and to enabling local people to do so”?

Leaving aside whether this is the place for a piece of current and very specific policy, is “very significant weight” weightier than a material consideration? There is a big body of case law on materiality. Where does that stand? I come to my last example:

“Inappropriate development is, by definition, harmful to the Green Belt and should not be approved except in very special circumstances”.

Well, yes, but is that not circular?

Language is hugely important. The Minister reminded us that the very term “planning” has positive, forward-looking connotations, and I very much support the notion of a plan-led system. The language of public debate has been most unfortunate. I do not like saying it, but the Government have brought it on themselves by using the term sustainable development as if it simply means development. That is how it reads; certainly that is how it is being read. Both detail and tone are important here. It was only when I read the draft that I realised that “development control” has become “development management”. That change of language is suitable.

I add my voice to those calling for the retention of the carefully balanced definition of sustainable development. I will say today merely that what tend to be thought of as the fourth and fifth limbs, the responsible use of science and good governance, seem to me to be as appropriate to planning as to other areas of government.

Planning has to serve many demands, and those who have to operate it may in some cases be torn between concern over a lack of certainty—which we have always been told is so required in planning—and a welcome for opportunities, which uncertainty allows. Will developers, who used to call for certainty, find that uncertainty is their goal because it gives them so much more scope?

I will end on a mostly positive note. I welcome the approach which, to quote the introduction,

“sets out the Government’s requirements for the planning system only to the extent that it is relevant, proportionate and necessary”.

I hope that what we end up with is not tilted towards development because development per se is said to be a good thing. Nor should it be so loose that we are left with knowing what is okay only when we see it. I say to the Government, and I hope that this does not sound impertinent or patronising, that there is nothing wrong in revising a draft. Very extensive revision is not a defeat. When the Government revise this draft, as I hope they will, they should claim it as being good at government.