Housing and Planning Bill

Lord Taylor of Goss Moor Excerpts

Monday 25th April 2016 Lords Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Williams of Trafford) (Con)]

My Lords, government Amendments 127 and 128 ensure that the affirmative procedure will continue to apply to statutory instruments creating urban development corporations and urban development areas as recommended by the DPRRC.

The amendments at the same time ensure that the affirmative orders establishing a UDC and a UDA should be expressly not hybrid. We do not consider that a right to petition, which can significantly delay the creation of the UDC and the UDA, should be retained in light of the new statutory consultation requirement which this Bill introduces. Consultation provides a better and more accessible way for interested parties to express their views at an earlier stage in the process.

Non-government Amendment 128ZA would introduce the same process for establishing new town development corporations and areas as will apply under the provisions of this Bill to UDCs and UDAs. Non-government Amendment 128ZB would ensure that new town development corporations took into account the need for sustainable development and good design in pursuing their objectives. I am grateful to the noble Lords, Lord Taylor and Lord Best, for tabling these amendments.

When the noble Lords tabled similar amendments to Amendment 128ZA in Committee, my noble friend Lady Evans welcomed them as introducing a modernised process for establishing new town development corporations and areas. That modernised process will facilitate the role they can play in creating new, locally led garden villages and towns.

Similarly, Amendment 128ZB makes it clear that sustainable development and good design must be at heart of what new town development corporations do. My noble friend Lady Evans indicated in Committee the Government’s receptiveness to extending the objectives of new town development corporations in this way. I am accordingly pleased to accept Amendments 128ZA and 128ZB as tabled and urge the House to accept government Amendments 127 and 128.

[Lord Taylor of Goss Moor (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her kind comments and draw attention to my registered interests.

I have pressed on this issue for a number of years and I am delighted that the proposal has positive cross-party support. It will make a real difference. The principle is fundamentally clear. At the moment, local authorities in rural areas have the option, in effect, of either brownfield development within previously developed areas, which is a good thing, or the opportunity to extend existing villages and towns sequentially by a series of developments to meet housing needs. That can be a good thing but often it is deeply unpopular because it builds on the very places that people most value.

By going down the route of allowing local authorities the option of using the New Towns Act to acquire land to create new settlements to meet local needs—going through a local process and with local support—it gives an opportunity to create great places without treading so hard on the toes of those who live in wonderful historic communities. Many of these, frankly, are at breaking point. They have problems with traffic congestion, getting children into schools and meeting service needs.

Local authorities will be able to do this in a way that allows the owners of the land to be properly compensated and to do well out of it. None the less, it allows, through the capture of land value, for these places to be well served with schools, shops, GP surgeries, parks, sports facilities and all the other things that make a great place while at the same time making housing available at much lower cost. This is because we can make land available to small builders, self-builders and housing associations for starter homes. A whole range of needs often are not met at the moment because land values are so high or land is not available; or great places are not delivered because the person who owned the land took the money and the taxpayer was left scrabbling to provide the schools, the shops and the GP and other services that are needed.

It is an extra tool in the box. We can plan for the housing which we agree across the House is needed. It is not the only solution but it changes the opportunities available to local communities and local government. It will be hugely welcomed. I have spoken to a wide range of organisations, from the National Association of Local Councils, of which I am president, to CPRE, to the country landowners, to many of the major housebuilders, to local government bodies and to many of the local councils that have pioneered this kind of approach. It has universal support.

This is an important change. I greatly thank the Minister, her colleagues and the other parties for the support that they have given to it. I particularly thank my colleague, the noble Lord, Lord Best, who has helped me bring this to the House.

[Lord Best (CB)]

My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Taylor of Goss Moor, in his Amendments 128ZA and 128ZB. I, too, thank the Minister for accepting the amendments in advance of this debate. I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, on his sterling work over several years in flying the flag for new settlements and new garden villages—small new towns, if you like. These can achieve all the objectives of good design, sustainability and sensible land use and produce significant numbers of new homes. I commend the work of the Town and Country Planning Association over the whole of the past century in promoting the benefits of new towns and new communities. I hope their hour has come, or nearly so.

As the noble Lord, Lord Taylor, has explained, building a settlement of 1,500 to 5,000 homes with a well-formulated master plan all in one place means that land does not have to be found haphazardly in dozens of little parcels. Instead of evoking protests in 100 places where local people object to seeing 20, 30 or 40 more homes built in their area with no extra infrastructure, lots more traffic and no social gains, the new settlement can generate a greater number of homes with all the necessary transport and community facilities built in.

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Moved by

[Lord Taylor of Goss Moor]

128ZA: After Clause 151, insert the following new Clause—
“Designation of new town areas and establishment of corporations: procedure
(1) The New Towns Act 1981 is amended as follows.(2) In section 1 (designation of areas)—(a) after subsection (3) insert—“(3A) Before making an order under this section designating an area of land in England as the site of a proposed new town, the Secretary of State must consult the following persons (as well as the local authorities mentioned in subsection (1))—(a) persons who appear to the Secretary of State to represent those living within, or in the vicinity of, the site;(b) persons who appear to the Secretary of State to represent businesses with any premises within, or in the vicinity of, the site;(c) any other person whom the Secretary of State considers it appropriate to consult.”(b) in subsection (4), after “section” insert “designating areas of land in Wales”.(3) In section 3 (establishment of development corporations for new towns), after subsection (2) insert—“(2A) Before making an order under this section in relation to a site in England, the Secretary of State must consult the following persons—(a) persons who appear to the Secretary of State to represent those living within, or in the vicinity of, the site;(b) persons who appear to the Secretary of State to represent businesses with any premises within, or in the vicinity of, the site; (c) every county or district council for an area which falls wholly or partly within the site;(d) any other person whom the Secretary of State considers it appropriate to consult.”(4) In section 77 (regulations and orders)—(a) after subsection (3) insert—“(3ZA) The power of the Secretary of State to make orders under section 3 is also exercisable by statutory instrument.”;(b) after subsection (3A) insert—“(3B) A statutory instrument containing an order made by the Secretary of State under section 1, 2 or 3 may not be made unless a draft of the instrument has been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament.(3C) If a draft of an instrument containing an order of the Secretary of State under section 1, 2 or 3 would, but for this subsection, be treated for the purposes of the standing orders of either House of Parliament as a hybrid instrument, it is to proceed in that House as if it were not a hybrid instrument.”;(c) in subsection (4), for the words before paragraph (a) substitute “A statutory instrument that is made by the Welsh Ministers (by virtue of paragraph 30 of Schedule 11 to the Government of Wales Act 2006) under any of the following provisions of this Act is subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of the National Assembly for Wales—”;(d) in subsection 4(a)(ii), omit “a county planning authority or, where the order is one designating an area in Wales, by”.(5) In Schedule 1 (procedure for designating area), before paragraph 1 insert—“Application of Schedule: Wales onlyA1 This Schedule applies only in relation to an order under section 1 designating an area of land in Wales as the site of a proposed new town.””