Planning (Community Right of Appeal)

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 20th January 2015 Westminster Hall

[Anne Marie Morris]

I strongly support that suggestion and it would be an excellent addition to the list of things that might be considered.

If the appeal mechanism is to be effective, it must be easy to use, low in bureaucracy and cheap. However, it cannot be beyond the wit of the Government to come up with a set of forms and a formula that will make it accessible to communities. I also believe that there are communities, community groups and charities out there that will be more than happy to put forward proposals for support.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

rose—

[Mr Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

Before the hon. Lady gives way again, I must say that interventions are becoming rather long, and we want to give the Minister plenty of time to respond to the debate.

I call Jim Shannon to speak—very briefly.

[Jim Shannon]

I will be very quick. The hon. Lady mentioned the figure—the number of people—that would trigger an appeal. In every case, the number of people living in an area who are impacted by a development might vary. There would be occasions when the impact of a development would be great, but the number of people living in the area impacted would be small. So I just wondered what the trigger figure would be.

[Anne Marie Morris]

Again, the devil would clearly be in the detail. However, the challenge is to create a relatively simple system. If we make things too complicated, including the definition of the “group” or “community”, this system will never be established. So, while I take the hon. Gentleman’s point, we must look at how we would make the system work in practice.

The appeal would need to be an appeal to the inspector, to give communities a right equivalent to the one that developers now have. In the same way, it is right that the council would have to pay a penalty if it refuses an application but the developer then succeeds in overturning that decision. Similarly, if the community succeeds on appeal, having initially been refused, the council would have to pay a penalty.

The benefits of this process would be that the community would at last see some fairness; that developers would be encouraged in a proactive way to better engage with communities; that local authorities would have to think long and hard, and not only about the community infrastructure levy, when making their decisions; and that in the future we would create communities rather than blocks of houses.

I commend the Government for what they have done in dealing with our housing issues and problems. However, I hope that the Minister will recognise and accept that there is a challenge here, and that communities feel aggrieved at their lack of engagement in the planning process. I also hope that he will agree to give this issue some proper attention, and will consider whether or not such an appeal is workable. Clearly, the matter would have to go out to proper consultation and I appreciate that this close to an election it may be more of a manifesto issue, rather than something to be done today.

Nevertheless, this is not just a case of amending existing legislation, and it would not be an adequate response to say, “We have done a great job.” We have; the Government have done a good job. And—dare I say it?—if the Opposition’s view held sway instead, communities would have no rights or say in where housing was located. However, we need to take this issue seriously and come up with some positive proposals. So I ask the Minister—through you, Chairman—to acknowledge that there is an issue and to agree to take some concrete steps.