Planning and Infrastructure Bill (Eleventh sitting)

Gideon Amos Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 20th May 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Lee Pitcher (Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme) (Lab)]

I want to express my absolute support for this clause. I chair the all-party parliamentary water group and the APPG for sustainable flood and drought management, and prior to my time in this place, I worked in the world of design and engineering around the climate, so this is an important issue for me. I support sustainable urban drainage systems, especially after this April and May, as it looks like we will have had the driest spring in 100 years. We need to consider what we are doing on developments about drought, with grey water recycling, and we need to look at how we address future flood risk and build resilience in new towns—and existing ones as well. I am happy to see this measure in the Bill.

[Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve on this Committee with you in the Chair, Ms Jardine. I, too, rise to support this clause, but I note that here we will mitigate “and” adapt to climate change, whereas in the spatial development strategies, we will mitigate “or” adapt to climate change. Without wishing to nit-pick, I feel that point needs to be made.

[Matthew Pennycook]

I will not rehearse our previous debate, in which I was clear that the Government’s intention, and what the Bill delivers, on spatial development strategies does account for mitigation and adaptation. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster East and the Isle of Axholme and the hon. Member for Taunton and Wellington for their support of this clause.

This clause is important because, in some cases, development corporations taking on planning powers will already be subject to such duties, but we know that not every development corporation will take on planning powers. Some will have a major role to play in development through master planning, for example, and we want to cater for all eventualities. It is therefore essential that development corporations are subject to the duties in this clause, independent of whether they take planning powers, to cater for the full range of uses.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 80 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.

Clause 81

Powers in relation to infrastructure

Question proposed, That the clause stand part of the Bill.

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[Olly Glover (Didcot and Wantage) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship once again, Ms Jardine. I rise to speak to amendments 86 and 87 on behalf of my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson). In tackling the issue of hope value, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill misses an opportunity when it comes to playing fields. The amendments seek to include recreational facilities such as playing fields by ensuring that when an acquiring authority uses a compulsory purchase order to acquire land for use as a sports or recreational facility, hope value would not be applied, thus making the cost more affordable.

The amendments would enable hard-pressed local authorities to acquire playing fields for their local communities’ use at playing-field value, instead of at an overinflated hope value, to boost additional grassroots sports provision. Such a change would allow sites such as Udney Park playing fields in Teddington, in my hon. Friend’s constituency—they have lain derelict for more than a decade under private ownership—to be acquired for public use. There is a dire need for additional playing space in the area.

The Liberal Democrats believe that everyone should have access to high-quality sports and recreation facilities in their local community. Indeed, Sport England says that those spaces are key to physical and mental health, and to community links. According to a 2023 College of Policing report, such facilities can help to reduce reoffending, particularly among young people. Up and down the country, too many communities lack the necessary land and space to support young people and families, as well as the wider community, to enjoy sport and improve their physical and mental health. I hope the Minister will consider the amendments in the spirit in which they are intended.

[Gideon Amos]

I rise to support the principle of what is being proposed in clause 91 and what has been said about the need to allow authorities to acquire land without paying additional hope value or value of planning permissions not yet sought or granted. It is a long-standing issue, and debates on it go back a very long time indeed; I think it began with Lloyd George, who said that it should be the state, rather than landowners, that benefits when the state invests resources or increases the value of land from its own actions.

I support the clause as a Liberal Democrat—it was in our manifesto—but I should add that it does not represent a radical or enormous change; in fact, it was the position for a great many years. Following the second world war, the Pointe Gourde case established the principle that hope value would not be paid. As has been mentioned, it was only the Land Compensation Act 1961, exaggerated by further case law in the 1970s, that gradually increased the amount of compensation payable to landowners on the basis of planning permissions not sought or obtained—that is, hope value. As we have been discussing, that frustrates and stymies the delivery of social housing, which we all wish to see, and of other public development.

For all those reasons, this is a welcome clause and we definitely support it. On amendment 2, my understanding is that the clause would allow social housing to be delivered under the provisions of clause 91, but no doubt the Minister will clarify that. We will make our decision about amendment 2 on that basis.

Finally, this has been a long campaign by a number of people and organisations, including the Town and Country Planning Association. People such as Wyndham Thomas, a pioneer in this field, long argued for a change to the hope value provisions. The change, if it comes today, will do credit to those who pushed for it for so many decades.

[Paul Holmes]

For the Committee’s convenience, I note that we do not plan to speak to proposed new clause 108, tabled by my right hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins); I have just scribbled it out. We welcome some provisions of clause 91, but we have some concerns. The Minister will definitely come back to me and say, “But your Government made some reforms.” We know that, but the Opposition have some concern about the scattergun—I would not say “spontaneous”—approach to bypassing hope value, which allows its removal through a much more centralised and unfair system. As we said previously about some CPO provisions, we are concerned that the clause will be unfair on some people who are not well off or affluent.

However, overall the clause is a pragmatic and well targeted reform that aims to steer towards prioritising community benefits and affordability. We will look at it in more detail in later stages of consideration; the Minister knows that we will constructively try to reform the elements that we are concerned about. But we will not press proposed new clause 108, and are happy to let clause 91 through without a Division.

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[Matthew Pennycook]

I will first respond to amendments 2, 86 and 87, then speak to clause 91 stand part, and finish by touching briefly on proposed new clause 108.

Amendment 2 was moved by the hon. Member for North Herefordshire. As she set out, it would amend clause 91 to expand the power, introduced by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, for CPOs to be confirmed with directions removing hope value. The amendment proposes expanding the direction power to CPOs that are delivering housing targets set out in their local plans.

The Government agree that there is a need to address issues around the payment of hope value, but I am unable to support the amendment. Sympathetic as I am to the greater use of hope value—mayors and local authorities around the country read Hansard closely, so I stress that the Government very much want an acquiring authority to utilise the powers in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act—I cannot accept the amendment because its principal objectives can already be achieved with the existing direction power. That power has similar effects but, importantly, requires affordable housing to be part of any scheme reliant on CPO powers. We therefore do not believe that the amendment is required.

If the hon. Member for North Herefordshire wants to respond we can have an exchange on this point, but the power in question is used on a case-by-case basis according to the public interest. This Government, like the previous Government, are well aware of the need to meet the public interest test so that use of the power does not fall foul of article 1 of the first protocol of the Human Rights Act 1998, in a true, broader application. That is why the public benefit test is important and needs to be judged on a case-by-case basis. Seeking to expand the use of the power beyond that test, and apply it much more widely, is problematic.

[Gideon Amos]

It would be helpful if the Minister confirmed what I think he is saying: that the application of compulsory purchase under clause 91 could include compulsory purchase of land that will be used for social or affordable housing.

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[Matthew Pennycook]

In speaking to the clause, I stressed that the purpose is to ensure that the new system of environmental outcomes reports introduced by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act, which this Government are committed to proceeding with, is compliant with all our international obligations. I mentioned, for example, the Espoo convention. The UK is party to that convention, and thus all development must consider whether the project will have likely significant effects on the environment in other states that are also party to it. I understand the shadow Minister’s points, but this is a non-controversial clause that simply ensures that once we bring the new system into force, it is compliant with all our international obligations.

[Gideon Amos]

It might be helpful to point out that the Espoo convention—the transboundary convention—is not, although the shadow Minister referred to European obligations and transition, a European convention; it is a United Nations convention. It is therefore not related to Brexit. It is a convention signed under the United Nations commission. It is important that the clause addresses that.

The Espoo convention also reminded me of the training for inspectors point that the Minister made. I wonder whether the Government, given the clauses in the Bill, particularly the hope value clause we discussed earlier, would ensure that training of inspectors is brought up to date across the board to ensure that the provisions are properly applied. I declare an interest as a former inspector.

[Matthew Pennycook]

We value the hon. Gentleman’s expertise and insight. I would say two things. It is worth clarifying—apologies if I gave the impression otherwise—that it is for the upper tribunal to determine compensation cases, but I reassure the Opposition that when it comes to inspectors and their role in the CPO process, they have the necessary skillset. I will provide further reassurance on that point.

To the hon. Gentleman’s point on the Espoo convention, although I do not want to answer for the shadow Minister, it is right that, while the convention is not EU-derived, the new system of EORs will replace the EU-derived processes of EIAs and SEAs. I think that is the point that the shadow Minister was making. We want to ensure that the new system that replaces the EU-derived existing assessment regime is compatible with our international obligations, and nothing more.

Question put and agreed to.

Clause 93 accordingly ordered to stand part of the Bill.