Growth and Infrastructure Bill

Crispin Blunt Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2012 Commons Chamber

and it is that that gives us and a number of campaigning groups concern about clause 8 as drafted.

[Mr Crispin Blunt (Reigate) (Con)]

Will the hon. Lady tell the House what preliminary view she has taken of new clause 11, tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert), and whether she is broadly sympathetic to it? I realise that she has not yet had a chance to hear my right hon. Friend’s arguments, but is she open to the proposals in the new clause?

[Roberta Blackman-Woods]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that intervention, and I will deal with that point in just a moment.

I was talking about the wide range of infrastructure that could be allowed to develop in areas of outstanding natural beauty, in our national parks and in conservation areas, if clause 8 were not amended. Many Members on both sides of the House would be gravely concerned if broadband masts, wires and cabinets—let alone any other communications equipment—were suddenly allowed to spring up all over our national parks, and the Government have not yet given sufficient reassurance on the issue. We have no idea how local authorities would be able to oppose inappropriate siting of overhead cables or broadband cabinets if they had to make economic development their overriding criterion. I have made it clear that we are not against the roll-out of broadband; we just think that the clause is incorrectly worded at present.

The Minister claimed in Committee that it was not possible to specify broadband in the Bill owing to European legislation. I asked him at the time to point to the precise area of European legislation that prevents the Government from specifying it in that way, but I am still waiting for that clarification. I hope that he will be able to answer the question today.

Some groups, including the Campaign to Protect Rural England, have called for clause 8 to be deleted in its entirety, not least because it would set a worrying precedent in legislation. It seems to propose the scrapping of the special and rightful protection that is offered to our national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty, and to allow telecoms companies to install cabinets and masts in a free-for-all without securing permission from the relevant local authority. That would be unacceptable, and I hope that the Minister will take on board our concerns and those of the many organisations that have written to us about the proposal. I hope that he will give us an idea of how he intends to limit the impact of the clause on those beautiful areas, because we do not believe that it strikes the right balance at the moment.

The hon. Member for Reigate (Mr Blunt) asked me about new clause 11. I have looked at the proposal in some detail, and it makes a number of interesting points, but we feel that they are already dealt with in the planning system. Indeed, the hon. Gentleman might like to have a word with the Minister responsible for planning about how he will ensure that the national planning policy framework addresses the issue of planning policy shaping communities. I would say that our new clause 5 does a better job, because asking for such a positive view of planning and using it to shape our communities would mean that, in addition to looking at the need for new housing, we would look at the need for schools, jobs, a proper roads network for public transport, and so forth. It therefore seems to me that our new clause 5 positively supports new clause 11. I shall leave my comments there for the moment.

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[Nick Herbert]

That raises the question of the process whereby councils are now assessing need, and the potential confusion between need and demand. I think that communities will feel cheated if, having been promised the abolition of the top-down housing target that was set by the last Government—effectively by means of the regional spatial strategies—they see it returning through the back door in the shape of a planning inspector, and if local authorities find that they have no choice but to provide a level of housing that they consider to be unsustainable.

[Mr Blunt]

Let me make it clear to my right hon. Friend, and to the Minister, that that is precisely what is happening to Reigate and Banstead borough council. Its draft plan has been kicked back by the inspector to “show again”, because it simply does not meet what he believes to be the required development objectives in the green belt. The council is being invited to review the green belt in its area, which is meant to be sacrosanct. It is not just in the case of ordinary developments that localism is being overturned.

[Nick Herbert]

My hon. Friend makes his point powerfully. The principle of localism is enshrined in the very name of the legislation recently mentioned and was set out in the coalition agreement. Under that principle, local communities should now have the power—on an objective assessment, I agree—to gauge the level of need. They are best placed to determine whether there is sufficient local infrastructure and what the environmental damage would be, and balance that against the economic needs of their area. They are best placed to determine the right level of housing in their area.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Nick Boles)]

I apologise to the House and to Members who tabled new clauses and amendments and have not had a chance to speak. I hope that the House will understand if I focus on amendments that are new on Report, rather than those tabled in the Bill Committee, where we had a full discussion, although I will of course return to clause 1 and the justification for it at the end of my brief remarks.

I shall start by addressing new clause 11, proposed by my right hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) and a range of right hon. and hon. Friends. The Government and I share completely my right hon. Friend’s emphasis on the vital importance of infrastructure to support new development. Indeed, one of our main criticisms of the record of the previous Government was their complete failure to ensure that it was put in place. Ironically at a time when money, both public and private, was more available than ever before, infrastructure was simply not provided for.

[Mr Blunt]

The effect of the new clause tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert), to which I put my name, is “must,” rather than “should,” which is the position I believe the Minister is about to defend, and “must” speaks to the arguments he has just made.