Lord Adonis
Main Page: Lord Adonis (Labour - Life peer)Growth and Infrastructure Bill
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Lord Adonis
My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, has made a very powerful argument of principle. He has also pointed out that the sums of money involved are considerable, and it should of course be the Government’s job, if we are promoting growth and development, to see that the costs to businesses are kept at the lowest level possible. That is clearly not being done at the moment. The noble Lord quoted a daily rate, which of course is high for professional people such as these. The National Infrastructure Planning Association estimates that on its conservative assumption of single inspectors examining applications four days out of five, panels of three inspectors examining on nine days out of 10 and panels of five examining on 19 days out of 20, the total overcharging has been of the order of £470,000. The sums of money that we are talking about are considerable.
However, the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, kindly wrote to me on this issue, because we had a long debate about it in Committee. She made an argument which I think is worthy of consideration but that leaves me wanting to ask her a question. Her argument is that the principle at stake should not be the number of days worked but a reasonable recovery of costs. In her letter to me, she says:
“We do not therefore consider that it is helpful to focus purely on the days worked by Examining Inspectors or the time that they record as there are wider costs involved in the process of examining a nationally significant infrastructure project”.
If that is the defence of the policy—that the relevant consideration is not the number of days worked but the recovery of costs—I think the Minister should feel bound to give the House information about how the costs relate to the charges that have been made. If the noble Lord, Lord Ahmad, is not in a position to give that information to the House this evening, would he please write to us with it afterwards? For my part, and I suspect for the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, we might wish to return to this on Third Reading.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Hanham)
I am delighted to return to this matter today. I thank the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, for the way he has introduced it. It is always worrying when the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, says something is a disgrace, because it is not usual language. I am sorry; I do not think I am quite in that category. But there we are.
We have discussed this previously, and I did write to the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, as he said. He did not quite finish off what I said in my letter, which was that the way of doing the fees was, as he quoted:
“to focus purely on the days worked by Examining Inspectors or the time they record”.
I went on to say that that,
“was recognised by the previous Government when drawing up the Regulations”.
This is not new. It has not just appeared. I then said:
“The fees therefore cover work carried out both by the Examining authority and persons supporting the Examining authority during the whole of the examination period”.
That is what the fees are for.
This Government, like the previous Government, do not accept that the fees regime for major infrastructure should be structured along the narrow lines suggested by this amendment. One of the policy aims when the regulations were put in place was to,
“introduce a charging scheme that is fair in the sense of charging fees broadly in proportion to the resource cost incurred in processing applications”.
There is a clear indication from this that it is a recovery of costs as much as anything else. That is why we do not believe that it is particularly helpful to focus purely on the days worked by the examiners. As I mentioned in Committee, it is important to recognise that these fees also cover the costs of staff who administer and manage the applications and provide support for the examining authority. It is on that important supporting infrastructure that we are looking to make recovery, as did the previous Government. We are clear that, even now, PINS do not cover their full costs under this regime. It is not exactly a money-spinner.
We are aware that some developers have questioned the interpretation of the 2010 infrastructure fees regulations—
Lord Adonis
If the noble Baroness will forgive me, the issue is not whether PINS at large cover their costs but whether, as the noble Baroness said in her letter to me, the costs associated with the applications themselves are being recovered. Is she in a position to tell me whether, on disaggregating the costs, the costs relating to specific applications are being fully recovered at the moment, if that is the yardstick?
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, they are being fully recovered, as I understand it. No, I think it is right to say that they are not being fully recovered. I should not try to take messages. I will write with that detail to the noble Lord before Third Reading.
We have just laid new regulations, as the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, said. Broadly speaking they provide that, first, applicants will not be charged for weekends and public holidays unless those days were required for the handling of the application; secondly, applicants will not be charged for days where the examination has been formally suspended; and, thirdly, the Secretary of State may decide not to charge for other days because of sickness or any other circumstances notified to the applicant. It is very clear that what are being charged for are the days on which work is taking place and not weekends. It would probably be a full five days, but not at weekends and not if somebody goes off sick who is important to the hearing. If there are other circumstances, they can be notified. Those regulations have been laid and are therefore there for people to comment upon.
We have tried, as the previous Government did, to ensure that with this regime there is as near a recovery of costs as there could be in a way that is understood and fair. If the noble Lord, Lord Jenkin, was saying that the explanation up until now has not been fair because it has not been understood, I hope noble Lords will think that our regulations, having been laid, provide a good explanation and good support for the fees structure. On that basis, I hope that the noble Lord will withdraw his amendment.
Lord Adonis
My Lords, at this late hour I am not going to add another speech. I simply say that the arguments which have been set out are very compelling indeed and I hope that the Government are able to make some movement.
Lord Adonis
Lord Adonis
My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 48ZC, 48ZD and 48AA. These amendments repeat amendments that I moved in Committee. They would exclude quarrying and open-cast mining from the definition of business and commercial developments; require regulations to limit the definition of business and commercial projects in order to exclude areas of special historical or environmental importance from the type of applications that could be permitted to bypass the local authority; require the Secretary of State to publish the reasons for his decision to assume authority to decide the outcome of an application, including the reasons for which he considers the application to be nationally significant; and request that the local plan will have primacy where there is no existing national policy statement of relevance.
I thought it important that even at this late hour we had an opportunity to debate what is quite a significant change brought about by the Bill. There is one specific issue arising from Committee that I would like to clarify with the noble Baroness. I am not sure who to address and I have got it wrong each time so far. The noble Baroness and the noble Lord are confusing us by changing between Committee and Report. They are clearly able to cover the waterfront between them.
The subject of opencast mining is extremely sensitive and controversial in the communities where it takes place. The current issue is whether this will or will not come into the definition of business and commercial development. In Committee, the noble Baroness was vague on this point. She said:
“We therefore consider that some minerals schemes could be capable of being of national significance, but again we wish to consider the consultation responses before we reach final conclusions about the forms of development”.—[Official Report, 4/2/13; col. 62.]
Is she able to say whether that further consideration has been given and what kind of mineral schemes, if any, would in the Government’s view be capable of being of national significance? This is a new issue which was left very much in the air after Committee and I hope that if she is not able to give me a reply today she will be able to write to me afterwards. I beg to move.
Lord Berkeley
My Lords, I shall speak briefly to Amendment 48A, which is grouped with these amendments. This re-examines the situation where there are commercial and business projects with housing. I am grateful to the Minister for her letter yesterday. There is this tension between projects which include housing and which are therefore excluded and those that do not include housing. In her letter the Minister does not say what consultees felt about the moving of housing from the scope of Clause 24, only that there was comment on whether the exclusion of housing from the regime, although widely supported, would limit the number of mixed-use schemes.
This amendment would be a useful way of dealing with projects that are nationally significant commercial or business projects being considered under the Planning Act, but it would also strengthen the “town centres first” approach in the National Planning Policy Framework. Despite what the Minister said in Committee, it does not counter the Government’s line that planning for housing should remain a core responsibility of local authorities, as set out in the NPPF. They do have a role, but it would be useful to hear the Minister’s comments as to when there is a small housing element within a larger development. I look forward to what the Minister has to say in response.
Baroness Hanham
My Lords, I thank both noble Lords for tabling these amendments, which, as the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, said, we discussed and considered quite carefully in Committee. The amendments seek to limit the types of development and development sites which can and cannot be considered nationally significant under Clause 24. As noble Lords are aware, the purpose of Clause 24 is to extend the existing powers within the Planning Act to direct certain forms of proposed development into the Planning Act regime to new forms of business and commercial development if it is of national significance.
Amendments 48ZB and 48ZD would rule out proposed schemes using the regime if they were on sites of special environmental or historic importance or if they involved minerals extraction or quarrying. They would also apply to existing types of infrastructure, such as energy, transport and water, as well as to new forms of business and commercial schemes. When we debated the amendments in Committee, I explained that one effect would be that a potential scheme of national significance, which might otherwise be considered via the Planning Act route, could not be the subject of a direction if part of the site had an environmental designation or was of historic importance. We are fortunate to live in a country that enjoys the benefits of beautiful countryside, about which we heard so much earlier, and a rich and varied historic environment. Although it is unclear what site of environmental or historic importance the noble Lord has in mind, it is worth while reflecting that the National Planning Policy Framework sets out a clear planning framework for development, which might have an impact on areas with a special designation. If a scheme is of national significance and is directed into the regime, the Secretary of State will have to consider all the issues which are both important and relevant, including any impact on the historic or natural environment, before he reaches his decision. We do not believe that it is sensible to exclude from the scheme large parts of the country without proper consideration of the planning merits. That could also discourage developers bringing forward new infrastructure or other forms of development vital to the country.
The noble Lord has also sought to exclude surface mineral extraction or quarrying. Perhaps I may explain our thinking on minerals a little more, as I think that he thought that I was a bit wobbly last time. As we explained and recognised in the National Policy Planning Framework, minerals are essential to support sustainable economic growth and our quality of life. For example, without minerals, our building industry would grind to a halt. It is important that there is a sufficient supply of material to provide the infrastructure, buildings, energy and goods that we need. That is why we sought views on whether some mineral schemes could be capable of using the nationally significant infrastructure regime.
However, I would say again what I said in Committee. We are considering consultation responses and we need to take them into account before we reach a final view on whether mineral schemes should form part of the proposals at all. I remind noble Lords that the accompanying regulations, which are required to prescribe the types of development, will be subject to the affirmative procedure, so we will have an opportunity to discuss them in detail later.
The noble Lord has also spoken again to the amendment which would require the Secretary of State to give reasons when making a direction. We covered that briefly in Committee. Although I do not disagree with the noble Lord on the point of substance, the amendment is unnecessary. The Secretary of State is already required to give reasons for his decision when making a direction under Section 35(10), and that requirement is carried forward in new Section 35ZA(10) in Clause 24. That is why we do not think the amendment is necessary.
Amendment 48AA would then require the Secretary of State to make decisions on development consent orders for business and commercial developments where there is no national policy statement in place to be made in accordance with the relevant local plan. As we set out in our recent consultation document on the new business and commercial category of development, the Government do not think the case for one or more national policy statements is strong for that category of development. Again, we have been considering the responses to consultation. Only about a third of the responses that we received said they thought a national policy statement should be prepared.
I should stress that, unlike nationally significant forms of infrastructure, which are brought automatically into the regime, the clause does not make it mandatory that developers use the major infrastructure regime. They may make a request to the Secretary of State to use the Planning Act regime or they may continue to submit their planning application to the local council. It is entirely a matter for them under the circumstances.
The noble Lords, Lord Jenkin and Lord Berkeley, once again raised the very important issue of housing and how it should be considered through this planning regime. Perhaps I may say again what importance the Government lay on housing development and also why we think it should remain part of local consideration. We recognise that there are many large, mixed-use schemes that will include an element of housing. Some may have a large amount, as the noble Lord said; some may have very few houses. However, there is also a very pressing need for housing and that is why the Government set out in the National Planning Policy Framework how they expect local planning authorities to help boost the supply of housing in the local area. Each local planning authority therefore should have a clear understanding of the housing needs in its area. It should understand the scale and mix of housing it is likely to need over the local plan period and should plan for the different types of housing it will need, such as for older people and families, and affordable housing. The Government therefore see the delivery of housing by local councils as their core responsibility. We have not ignored the views that have been expressed in this House and elsewhere on whether housing should form part of the infrastructure planning regime. We did not consult specifically on whether housing should be a prescribed form of business and commercial development. It was raised by some respondents, with the majority of them supporting the Government’s position, while a few disagreed.
We recognise that, from time to time, major schemes will come forward that may indicate the need for a decision at the national level. Where there are major residential schemes, such as new settlements with larger than local impacts, the Secretary of State has indicated that we would carefully consider the use of call-in. We believe that is the right approach. We have looked further at the issue of housing but it has not changed our view that we should retain our current position as set out in the Bill. We do not therefore propose to allow development that includes housing to use the infrastructure regime. I hope that clarifies what I think is a sensible approach that will enable new forms of nationally significant development to benefit from the planning regime without it necessarily being mandatory. With those explanations, I hope that the noble Lord will be willing to withdraw the amendment.
Lord Adonis
My Lords, I am very grateful to the noble Baroness for that explanation of the Government’s thinking. I feel bound to make two points. I am not going to press the matter at this late hour. I want to contrast the extremely rigid position she has adopted in respect of developments that include any element of housing—where the Government have given an absolutely categoric view that looks to me to be unduly rigid—with the extreme lack of precision which the noble Baroness has offered the House when it comes to a whole range of other projects such as open-cast mining and quarrying. These may or may not be subject to the nationally significant planning routes depending on decisions that the Government will take care of afterwards. It exemplifies the problem we have in this House of making the law. We are very much dependent on the assurances the Government give us as to what they may or may not do, which we are unable to hold them to.
That leads to me to her response on open-cast mining and quarrying where she said that this will be subject to regulations that will come forward under the affirmative procedure. The great problem in this House is that we have to take statutory instruments or leave them. We do not have the capacity to amend the regulations so the whole set of very important criteria for qualification for the nationally significant planning routes, which will be made hereafter, will be presented to the House on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. If we were making the law in a proper and satisfactory way then, after a proper process of consultation with the results firmly laid before the House, it would be in the Committee and the Report stages of the consideration of this Bill that we took the decision as to what was going to be in the definition of business and commercial projects within the Planning Act 2008 regime.
However, I am well aware that I am whistling in the wind at the moment. I am not going to be able to change the whole legislative process at one minute to 10 this evening but I feel bound at least to make that point because one day, I hope, we will turn ourselves into a properly efficient and satisfactory legislature. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Lord Berkeley
My Lords, I am very grateful to the Minister for the work that she has done and for being able to convince the Department for Transport to support this very sensible amendment. I hope that it will enable a proper, modern and efficient tolling system to be installed on the proposed new road in east London, the river crossing in east London and any other projects that come up. It is a major step forward, and I am very grateful.
Lord Adonis
My Lords, I echo what my noble friend has just said. This is a very sensible amendment, and we thoroughly support it.