Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill

Earl of Caithness Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd May 2023 Lords Chamber

Finally on that point, we also need to look at how we move forward with insuring businesses because Flood Re does not cover commercial properties, properties in multiple occupation over a certain size or tenants, necessarily. It is working successfully for those for whom it was set up, but there are a number of gaps. It is important that we revisit them because the next time we have huge floods, not only will there be huge costs for insurance companies, but there will be huge costs for people who have been unable to get insurance so far.

[The Earl of Caithness (Con)]

I very much support what has been said about adaptation and drainage because of the flooding situation. I shall mention one incident to my noble friend on the Front Bench because it goes to the point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock. At a development in Sherborne in Dorset—the development is now nine years old, so it was built after 2009—there have been considerable flooding problems from surface water, which raises the question: why did the local authority not insist on a better scheme to begin with? All the home owners have now had to pay more into the annual service charge to remedy the defect. The developer obviously put in the minimum amount of drainage that it thought it could get away with, which indeed it did, but now it is up to the home owners to meet the bill. It is so much easier to mitigate something right at the start than after a development has been completed.

My noble friend Lady McIntosh is right that we fought this hard on the Environment Bill when it was going through the House. I hope my noble friend the Minister will be enthusiastic in her support for my noble friend’s amendment so that we get better control over drainage. Will she please confirm that she is checking that local authorities are scrutinising developers’ plans properly now and making allowances for the increase in sudden heavy downpours, which was not necessarily the case 15 years ago when these developments were being promoted?

[Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville (LD)]

My Lords, Amendment 291 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, to which I have added my name, seeks to bring forward the date of the implementation of the requirement that the Government have announced to make sustainable drainage systems—SUDS—mandatory on all new developments from the end of 2023. Flooding is a terrible scourge and needs to be sorted out now, not next year or some time beyond. The Government appear to have committed to a leisurely timetable, with a consultation this year but no legislation before implementation, expected in 2024. That means that many developments that are currently being planned and built will not have SUDS in place, thus bringing a greater risk of flooding for them, and indeed for existing developments that may experience flooding in future as a result.

The noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh, is a passionate supporter of SUDS and other forms of natural defences, and has spoken extremely well on the subject on many occasions. Sustainable drainage is vital for preventing flooding or the risk of flooding. When a new planning application comes forward, the role of SUDS in dealing with surface water on a new development is crucial. Sadly, it is not always the case that a proper sustainable drainage system is integrated into the planning permission, despite it being in place since 2010 under Section 49 of the Flood and Water Management Act.

The essential role of SUDS in assisting the management of surface water and preventing localised flooding is vital. It is astonishing that even today not every developer is prepared to install proper sustainable drainage systems in its schemes. Having this amendment in the Bill is vital for ensuring that in future every single local authority takes note of the need for an effective and robust SUDS to be in place for even a small development, right up to large multipurpose housing and business developments. I fully support the amendment.

The group of amendments in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Hayman of Ullock, Amendments 303 to 308, also relate to flooding, and seek measures to alleviate and prevent the misery that it causes to home owners. I am particularly keen to support Amendment 308, which would extend the time and remit of flood reinsurance scheme eligibility to businesses, something that we have debated in this Chamber on previous occasions. The noble Baroness is right to raise the issue of the flood resilience of properties known to be likely to flood. Home owners as well as developers have a responsibility to be aware of this and to take steps to mitigate the effects of flooding.

I turn to Amendment 312K, in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering, which I have not signed but wish to support, regarding preventing residential properties being built on functional flood plains or other areas at high risk of flooding. Those domestic properties built after 2009 are not covered by Flood Re. It has in the past been the case that developments proposed on the flood plains in Somerset have been refused planning permission by the local authority, only to have this overturned by the then Secretary of State granting permission on appeal. As the saying goes, when the rains fell, then the floods came up, to paraphrase a parable in the Bible.

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I will bring my comments to a close. An existing use value needs to be defined. What among the prospects of free markets is it that the Government propose should now be disregarded? The net result of this could be highly irregular in terms of the pattern of values. Existing use value means different things to different people. A piece of bare land in a village or urban fringe might have a low scheme land value—I suppose it might have utility for the protection of the view for owner A, horse grazing for owner B, a wildflower meadow for someone else, or be part of an agricultural holding or amenity land, all of which have different valuation criteria. The list goes on. It means different things to different people. I said that I make no judgment about property owners and whether they should get inflated or other levels of value, but the Government need to explain and consider market sentiment or the result risks being the precise opposite of what they are setting out to achieve by these measures.

[The Earl of Caithness (Con)]

My Lords, the whole compulsory purchase issue is a complex and niche part of the law, as has been well explained in the debate today. I am hugely grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Carrington, for setting out his amendment in detail.

I have some interests to declare. It is 50 years—yes—since I was last involved in compulsory purchase procedures as a land agent, and the law has moved slightly since then. But I do remember how fiendishly complicated it was; just when I thought I had got my head around it, I moved jobs and went off to do something else.

The nub of the Government’s proposals is to change a long-settled aspect of compulsory purchase in this country. It was put into words by Lord Justice Scott in Horn v Sunderland. He said that the landowner

“has the right to be put, so far as money can do it, in the same position as if his land had not been taken from him”.

That tenet—that vital basic principle for compulsory purchase—is now being demolished by the Government, with the support of the Labour Front Bench.

It is now clear that there is considerable blue water on this issue between us and those who want to deprive a landowner or somebody of the rightful value of their property. It can start with land but it is a slippery slope. Once it is established that somebody is not getting the full market value for their land, and that the state can take that from them, it will go on into other issues that affect people. I deeply regret that my Government have headed down this road. I hope that my noble friend the Minister will be able to explain why she wishes to destroy that principal tenet of compulsory purchase.

The noble Lord, Lord Carrington, talked about the process of consultation. He was far too kind to the Government about that. On the previous amendment, interestingly, my noble friend Lady Bloomfield said that the Government could not accept it because a consultation would have to be had to go through it in detail before they could possibly come to Parliament. We come to this amendment and now we find that there was a consultation process, but the Government introduced it after the Bill had been read for a first time in another place; not only that, but they put down amendments contrary to the consultation process. So those who answered the consultation process were not actually answering the question that the Government are now posing.

If this was not so serious, it would actually be quite a funny skit about how badly the Government are behaving. This is an appalling way to govern. It reduces confidence among all the professionals in this area—and if it reduces the confidence of these professionals, it will not be long before the Government start reducing the confidence of other professionals.

The government amendments to the Land Compensation Act and the Acquisition of Land Act change significantly the basis of that consultation procedure. We have now got the results of the consultation—merely a week before we came to discuss it, and I think that was partly due to the very useful meeting that we had with the Minister’s officials, for which I am extremely grateful. At that meeting I posed them the question, “When are you going to publish the results of the consultation?” There was a scratching of heads and the answer, “Let’s see; we’ll go back to the department and think about it”. I am very grateful to the officials for having thought about it, but it proves that the consultation was a total waste of everybody’s time and a lot of paper.

Furthermore, the Government have asked the Law Commission to look at the whole of the compulsory purchase procedure laws. I spoke to the Law Commission this morning on this. It has started work on it; it aims to produce its report and the proposed Bill in 2025. Would it not be better, before the Government tread into this minefield of compulsory purchase, to wait for the Law Commission to come forward with its report before disturbing this issue?

I would like to ask my noble friend the Minister three questions. Nearly all schemes that are affected by compulsory purchase will include a developer; the local authority does not have the resources or the ability to do it on its own. So if a developer is involved, how can the Government justify allowing the developer to make a profit? As the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, has just said, it is something in the region of 20%.

I was a developer in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and all our schemes had a minimum of 20% when we started them. How can you justify giving a developer 20% profit when the landowner is not getting the market value for the land? That is a severe infringement of human rights. I appreciate that, as the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, said, the planning procedure is very expensive. If I remember rightly, I read in the papers yesterday that the Government have spent £800 million so far on costs regarding the proposed new Dartford crossing—and not a spade has been put in the ground yet. That is expensive, and it is equally expensive, but on a lesser scale, for landowners; proportionately, it is about the same.

If there is going to be a direction under the proposed legislation, will the local authority have to prove that the development could not proceed unless the land was bought at existing use value, not at market value? If the answer to that is no, then this is state robbery. If the answer to it is yes, my third question to my noble friend the Minister is whether the local authority will be required to publish detailed costs of the proposed development. It is only by getting the detailed costs that one will be able to challenge the efficacy of the proposal. One will need a considerable amount of detail from the developer and the local authority to show that compulsory purchase is the only method by which that proposed development could proceed.

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[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

My Lords, I beg to move that the debate on this amendment be adjourned.

[The Earl of Caithness (Con)]

Why do we have to adjourn when we are in the middle of an important debate? For the continuity of that debate, surely if the Minister replies now, that will be fine.

[Baroness Bloomfield of Hinton Waldrist (Con)]

There are a number of other speakers to speak in the debate. The list of speakers is quite long and we would probably be allowing another hour before the next business could be taken, which has been timetabled for around 4 pm.