Local Authorities: Local Plans

Lord McKenzie of Luton Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

My noble friend makes some interesting points. My first response to him is to restate that local plans are indeed the best way for local people to decide how best to meet their own planning needs. The Government are supporting local authorities to publish and adopt their plans, because we recognise that this is a complex process. We have trebled the number of local authorities with adopted plans since 2010. However, as I have said, because this is so important, we will consult shortly on whether to make adopting a plan a statutory requirement and, if so, by when.

[Lord McKenzie of Luton (Lab)]

My Lords, we know that a number of local authorities are frustrated in facilitating the provision of housing, particularly affordable housing, where there is inadequate land supply within their boundaries and neighbouring authorities are ignoring their duty to co-operate on housing growth. The needs of Stevenage and Oxford are just two examples. As the Minister is aware, local authorities are required to provide evidence that they have complied with the duty in their development plans if the plans are not to be rejected by the examiner. How many local plans have, to date, been sent back for that reason? Does the Minister not agree that the duty to co-operate is proving to be a totally inadequate policy, given the scale of housing provision that our country needs?

[Baroness Stowell of Beeston]

I do not have the specific data to respond to that question from the noble Lord, but I can say to him that 75% of local authorities have now published a plan and 52% have adopted that plan. As I have already said, this is a massive increase on where we were in 2010, so there is real progress. However, because this is so important, we may, as I have said, introduce a statutory requirement to ensure that this happens across the board.