English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill

Debate between Lewis Atkinson and Paul Kohler

Consideration of Lords amendments
Tuesday 21st April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Lewis Atkinson (Sunderland Central) (Lab)]

I will speak to Lords amendment 41, regarding putting the agent of change principle on a statutory basis, particularly ensuring that new developments have a noise impact assessment when they are near grassroots music venues. I support the Government’s plans to increase house building, and I recognise that genuine care has to be taken to not increase red tape to the detriment of that goal. However, at the moment, the agent of change regime is preventing elements of house building and residential use in my constituency, as I will come on to. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Manchester Withington (Jeff Smith), I am slightly disappointed that that a Government amendment in lieu to Lords amendment 41 has not been tabled.

Sunderland is a music city, and venues such as Pop Recs, Independent and The Bunker are core to our identity. If we are about empowering our community, we need to empower it to protect those venues culturally important to us, which of course are also crucially economically important. As has been said, many grassroots music venues have closed over recent years, with the number declining from 1,150 venues nationally to 800 today. Those closures are due to not just economic factors, but planning issues.

The Minister referenced that there will be guidance around the agent of change principle, but the reality is that there have been forms of guidance since 2014 or 2015, and the Music Venue Trust reports that there has been no let-up in inappropriate planning applications near music venues. For those reasons, the Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport’s 2024 report recommended that

“the agent of change principles are put on a statutory footing at the earliest opportunity.”

This Bill is an opportunity to do so—if not through Lords amendment 41, then potentially through alternative means, which I hope the Minister will say something about. I repeat the question asked by the Liberal Democrat spokesperson, the hon. Member for Guildford (Zöe Franklin), about whether the guidance will be statutory or general.

In my constituency, the Music Venue Trust had to intervene in a planning application to convert a unit of flats near Independent on Holmeside because the plans did not contain sufficient noise protection. That process took too long, incurred cost and risk to the venue, and ultimately meant that the flats were not built, so we actually have housing that is not being built due to a lack of clarity on the agent of change principle. That shows why that principle needs to be strengthened; currently, given that the guidance is not statutory, developers are incentivised to try to get away with proposals.

Will the Minister meet me, other members of the APPG on music, and the Music Venue Trust to discuss strengthening the guidance? Will she also make sure that the statutory guidance in the NPPF that she refers to specifically refers to noise abatement in relation to grassroots music venues?

[Mr Kohler]

I wish to speak to Lords amendment 42. Where a local authority provides land for public recreation, it can be held on the basis of a statutory trust that protects it. Parliament has set out a process that must be followed if that trust is to be ended. It is not a brilliant process by any means, but at least it gives a central role to local authorities.

In Day v. Shropshire, the Supreme Court recently held that where those requirements are not followed, the trust—quite reasonably—remains in place. However, amendment 42, first tabled in the other place by the Conservative peer Lord Banner, cuts across that principle. It would allow the Secretary of State to set aside those protections where the proper process has not been followed, even where the current local authority might not now support terminating the trust. It replaces localism with centralism.

Lord Banner sought to justify his amendment on a number of questionable grounds, including the assertion that the Supreme Court decision is

“causing considerable uncertainty in relation to land purchased in good faith from local authorities”.—[Official Report, House of Lords, 5 March 2026; Vol. 863, c. GC527.]

The only example I am aware of is a controversial issue in my constituency of Wimbledon. In that case, the All England Lawn Tennis Club bought the freehold to a portion of Wimbledon Park in 1993 at an appropriately reduced price, having expressly agreed both to never build on the land and to restore full rights of public recreation after the expiry of a pre-existing leasehold interest. There seems little doubt that the primary motivation behind the tabling of Lord Banner’s amendment relates to the Wimbledon Park controversy.

Unfortunately, despite previous assurances that they would leave the law unchanged until a proper consultation could take place, the Government rowed in behind the Banner amendment. That amendment would, however, still have been defeated had the Tories joined my Lib Dem colleagues in the No Lobby. Sadly, despite many assurances to the people of Wimbledon, every Tory peer either abstained or voted for the amendment tabled by their Conservative colleague, Lord Banner.

As we have heard, the Tories tabled an amendment—now re-tabled by the hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (David Simmonds)—that would require the Secretary of State to write a report, lay it before Parliament and consider it. That is simply a tick-box exercise that would do nothing to stop Lord Banner’s amendment from coming into force. It is a parliamentary sleight of hand to pretend to the people of Wimbledon that the Tories have not abandoned them—and the shadow Minister, the right hon. Member for Braintree (Sir James Cleverly), has the cheek to ask me why the Lib Dems refuse to join the Tories in this deception.

My constituents in Wimbledon expect the legal protections of land to be upheld in practice, not set aside for ministerial discretion and Tory cons. I tabled a motion to disagree with the Banner amendment but under the arcane procedures of this place, I understand that my motion will not be voted on, while the Banner amendment will remain. That marks a sad day for Wimbledon specifically, public trust land generally and the credibility of the Conservative party across Merton, where the overreach of the AELTC is an important local election issue.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel Bill (First sitting)

Debate between Lewis Atkinson and Paul Kohler

Committee stage
Tuesday 15th July 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Mr Kohler]

Q To your point on the RCM, the money you put into the RCM will bring down your overall costs, because the premium on SAF will go down, will it not?

Jonathon Counsell: Absolutely—we hope that eventually, as you scale up SAF supply, the cost will come down. Will it ever come down to jet fuel levels? I do not think it will, because of the factor cost element. I agree with Paul Greenwood, who said earlier that one of the disadvantages we have in this country is high energy costs. We are doing SAF contracts with SAF suppliers in the US, where their energy costs are one third of those in this country, so we are at a disadvantage.

On 2G SAF, however, I think we have some real advantages: we have some sites, we have expertise and we have feedstock, both waste biomass and municipal solid waste. We put 20 million tonnes of municipal solid waste into landfill; we even ship 5 million tonnes of it to Europe. That is energy. We should be using it to make SAF. Those advantages can overcome the energy disadvantage in the short term. Hopefully we will sort out that energy disadvantage, but as we scale up those plants that SAF price should come down. It is an investment, but we do not want to double-pay for it.

Luke Ervine: Just to add and clarify, I think Luke Taylor asked a question earlier about ways to pay for the SAF mandate. We have always been very clear about paying twice through things such as the ETS scheme. We would love to see those revenues used to reinvest in the decarbonisation of the aviation industry. Given the economic value it returns and the Government’s growth agenda, we believe that creating a SAF industry also creates jobs and a lot of economic prosperity. The Sustainable Aviation report in 2023 estimated that the UK SAF industry would create about 60,000 new jobs by 2050 and about £10 billion gross value added by the same time. There is a benefit here for the UK economy as a whole purely in terms of the SAF industry, and using some of the taxes we currently pay to fund the RCM would be very helpful.

Lahiru Ranasinghe: I do not have much to add to what has already been said, but the cost of SAF means that the cost of fuel will go up in the long run, even with the RCM. In our minds, the RCM is something that unlocks production, as opposed to something that brings the cost down. The primary role we see for it is in getting production up so that supply can meet demand in the short run. Ultimately, though, we will have higher costs because of SAF, especially as eSAF and power-to-liquid comes in, and those costs will have to be passed through.

We are doing a huge amount to try to be as efficient as we possibly can; that is where the investments in aircraft and how we operate come in. As they say, the best energy is the energy you do not use, and in that way we are trying to manage our costs in the same way we have for the past 30 years, but I completely agree that we have to be wary of adding on to the costs we are already paying in the name of sustainability, both right now and in terms of meeting the mandates.

[Lewis Atkinson (Sunderland Central) (Lab)]

Q Building on the point Mr Ervine made about the potential wider economic contribution of SAF, I am particularly interested in the jobs. We have heard that 70% of existing fuel is imported, and therefore a significant part of your economic supply chain is essentially providing economic benefit overseas. Could you say a little more about—if we get this off the ground, as it were—how far you think that value chain and economic benefit will shift into the UK from imports? In particular, could you talk about the potential regional economic benefits of SAF, as opposed to being concentrated on London and the south-east?

Jonathon Counsell: From our modelling and analysis, we still want to have the flexibility to import SAF, because there is a global market there and we do not want to put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage by saying that all mandated SAF has to be produced in the UK. We still want access to imported SAF, particularly 1G SAF; we do not think the UK has much competitive advantage in producing 1G SAF. We think roughly 50% feels about right, and you have to compare it around that. Our view is that, of the mandated SAF, approximately 50% should be produced here in the UK—but, as I said earlier, not all of that will need the revenue certainty mechanism.

One of the key points that I want to make is that the revenue certainty mechanism is for those plants that cannot get funding: they are early stage, first-of-their-kind technology, and cannot get tracker funding because it is perceived to be too high risk by the investment market, and they cannot get that revenue certainty through any other mechanism, so therefore they rely on this mechanism. We think that roughly half of that 50% will need the revenue certainty mechanism.

A good example is LanzaJet in Teesside, the speedboat project that I mentioned earlier. That does not need the revenue certainty mechanism because we at IAG are providing the company with a long-term committed take-or-pay offer. We are giving the revenue certainty to LanzaJet, so that project does not need it; but other projects do, typically including the municipal solid waste projects that take black bag waste. They are at a very early stage, using less mature technology, and they are massively capital intense projects. They definitely need the revenue certainty mechanism, so we must ensure that it is targeted.

As Luke said, we think that by 2030 there could potentially be 10,000 extra jobs in the UK from that UK production. We can share a piece of analysis that we did through Sustainable Aviation that showed what that looks like for each region of the UK. We think there is certainly potential to build plants in Wearside, Teesside, Humberside and south Wales; if we get the policy right, we think there could be up to 14 plants within the next 10 years, which will deliver £1.8 billion in GVA by 2030.

However, the big prize will come in 2050: 60,000 jobs and £10 billion in GVA. We are creating a new energy industry for the UK. I have to congratulate the Government: we have potentially the most powerful package of SAF policy in the world, with the mandate, the revenue certainty mechanism and the advanced fuels fund. Taken together, they mean that we are the envy of the world and we have a huge chance to be a world leader on SAF production.

Lahiru Ranasinghe: To add to that, it would also enable UK aviation to grow. Our estimates are that each aircraft based in the UK supports around 400 jobs and £27 million of GVA. We have over 150 aircraft in the UK as it is, we have three aircraft going to a new base in Newcastle shortly and we absolutely intend to continue with the growth in the UK. By having the RCM unlock SAF production and SAF supply, that opens the doors to us to continue growing, while also decarbonising. That is a massive part of the economic benefit that the RCM helps to unlock, beyond the obvious effects of supporting jobs and production on the ground in the SAF industry.

Luke Ervine: Just to add a note on benefits, it is important to recognise the cost of not having the RCM. We have spoken a lot today about the buy-out. The UK is unique in its ambition to have a 2G SAF mandate, so the cost of not having the RCM is important. If we do not have it, we pay buy-out, and then we are going to lose out regionally to other areas, such as Europe and the US, that do not have those 2G SAF mandates, so it is important that we recognise that there is a cost of not having the RCM.