Housing and Planning Bill (Thirteenth sitting)

Kevin Hollinrake Excerpts

Thursday 3rd December 2015 Public Bill Committees

One need go no further than the evidence given by house builders at the beginning of our deliberations. They said their major concern was that council planning departments should be properly resourced, not only so that they are able to put together their plans, which is extremely important, but on an operational basis, to ensure that applications for planning permission are dealt with speedily, which is what we all want to see. We all think it is important that people who are seeking planning permission for developments get that permission as speedily as possible so that we can get on with building the homes our country needs.

[Kevin Hollinrake (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

Does the hon. Lady accept that there have been no Government cuts to planning departments? That is a choice for local government. Does she also accept that such cuts are a false economy, because planning departments are there to drive the economic prosperity of an area and therefore of the local authority?

[Dr Blackman-Woods]

I have already outlined the choices that many local authorities throughout the country are having to make. Many councillors are facing the extremely difficult to decision of whether to cut the planning department, care services or education services. Although the hon. Gentleman is right to the extent—

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When local authorities in London are preparing local plans or are considering granting permission to sites of strategic importance in London through a register, the Mayor will therefore have an opportunity to influence the process by providing his views. I therefore hope that my hon. Friend will be able to withdraw the amendment.

[Kevin Hollinrake]

I would like quickly to sound the Minister out on what might be a key issue and a key opportunity—a further step on planning in principle for the brownfield register. This is really an opportunity for small and medium-sized enterprise house builders. I am a very strong advocate for SMEs, coming from a small-business background, but this is not just ideological. SMEs used to build around 100,000 homes a year in the UK, but now only build about 18,000, so this is a key opportunity. It is not just about building homes, but about who we find to build them.

Members will remember the evidence given to the Committee by Brian Berry from the Federation of Master Builders, who said:

“The brownfield register is a positive step, because there are very small parcels of land which our”—

SME—

“members could build on…That would encourage more development.”––[Official Report, Housing and Planning Public Bill Committee, 10 November 2015; c. 50, Q122.]

However, all that assumes that those plots of land are going to be released and made available to buy. We need to persuade local authorities, the NHS, Network Rail and the Ministry of Defence to give up their dominion over this land. It has been very interesting to hear the shadow Housing and Planning Minister talk about their dominion over their residential housing stock. We are trying to put that housing stock to better use, talking about a tax or a levy, but this is in public ownership. How can we tax something that is already in public ownership?

I took the opportunity to look up the stock for Durham County Council. There are 18,500 residential homes—I know recently there has been a stock transfer—and 9,234 commercial sites. There is a list of all those commercial sites all under Durham County Council’s ownership.

[Dr Blackman-Woods]

Will the hon. Gentleman outline what evidence he has that those sites are not being efficiently used at present?

[Kevin Hollinrake]

I am not saying that all those sites are developable, of course, but 6,500 of those sites are occupied by Durham County Council and 200 are vacant today. Why can those properties not be put to better use? I am not just focusing on Durham. Southwark Council owns 43% of the land in Southwark—there are 10,000 garages. We need to put that to better use.

[Helen Hayes]

Southwark Council is indeed a large landowner in the borough, but I hope the hon. Gentleman recognises that it also has the single biggest commitment to building council homes—11,000 new homes over 30 years—on much of that land, including many garage sites in the borough.

[Kevin Hollinrake]

I am very pleased to hear that but, when I travel home this evening, I will start at King’s Cross, which was a desolate brownfield site for decades. At the other end of my journey is York central, a desolate brownfield site for 20 years—in fact, since I started in business in York nearly 30 years ago.

[The Chair]

Order. The amendments are entirely about London, so to talk about York or, indeed, Durham is out of order.

[Kevin Hollinrake]

I was making a general point, Mr Gray. I would say that the same applies nationally. In conclusion—

[The Chair]

Order. It may well apply elsewhere as well as in London, but the amendments are entirely about London. It is therefore in order for the hon. Gentleman to discuss only matters to do with London. If he discusses matters to do with anywhere else in England, he is out of order.

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[Kevin Hollinrake]

I stand corrected, Mr Gray. To go back to my point about King’s Cross, how can we release the land in such locations owned by, for example, the NHS, local authorities, the Ministry of Defence or Network Rail?

[Maria Caulfield (Lewes) (Con)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to look at the processes via which local authorities and other public bodies in London—and, indeed, elsewhere—release that land so that we can speed up the planning process?

[Kevin Hollinrake]

I could not agree more. In conclusion, will my hon. Friend the Minister consider how we move that public land out of public sector ownership and into use for the public good?

[Brandon Lewis]

I have heard my hon. Friend’s comments and the intervention by my hon. Friend the Member for Lewes. Bearing in mind the amount of land we have in London, they make a sensible point. We have established the London Land Commission, which I chair jointly with the Mayor of London, to ensure we get that land released, and it is a really good vehicle for doing so. Nevertheless, I will take away their comments because they make a fair point about how we ensure that local authorities generally and public bodies particularly in London and elsewhere release that land.