Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill

Lord Thurlow Excerpts

2nd reading
Tuesday 17th January 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Thurlow (CB)]

My Lords, I add my voice of welcome to the noble Baroness, Lady Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent, and congratulate her on her excellent maiden speech. We welcome her to this House and look forward to her contributions in times to come.

Like many other noble Lords, I looked at this Bill and simply read “Planning Bill”. It seems to me overwhelmingly so and that is where I wish to contribute. In this regard, I fear the Bill has missed important opportunities. I declare my property interests as in the register and as a former chartered surveyor.

As a former member of the RICS, I will begin with a brief reference to Clause 213, which follows the Bichard review—I do not see the noble Lord in his place, but he may be speaking later. It is a very short clause, with five subsections. The RICS deserves this close focus from us following the mess it has got itself into in recent years. My only amendment would be to extend the period between compulsory internal reviews to 10 years rather than five, to avoid the risk of a process of almost continuous review.

I too am interested in the briefings from a number of charities and other lobby groups. Generation Rent referred to 29 homes a day being lost from the rented sector. Transferring these thousands and thousands of homes to holiday accommodation and short-term rentals brings a significant tax benefit to investors and a severe loss of tax revenue to the councils concerned. The investor benefits are non-domestic rates, where there are reliefs for small businesses; mortgage interest offsetting, which is not available to home owners; and a less stringent regulatory environment. Yet these changes of use from homes to short-term lets increase local resentment from communities unable to match the deep pockets of the highly geared investors. Much higher loan-to-value mortgages are available to businesses than through the affordability tests required of young, aspiring families wishing to live in their traditional communities. This should be a central plank of the Bill.

The Shelter report has been referred to. That under 3,000 social rented homes were provided in 2022 from Section 106 agreements is a complete disgrace. With council house waiting lists at 1.2 million, that provides less than 0.25% of the council house waiting list requirement—it does not scratch the surface. Since 1980, almost 2 million social housing unit sales have taken place. I agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Thornhill, that we must abandon “affordable”. It is out of context. We must focus on social housing. We are faced with a crisis in social housing, and this Bill is a great opportunity to fix it, but it fails. What will ensure the provision of social housing? The noble Baroness, Lady Warwick of Undercliffe, made this point very clearly.

There are positives in this Bill. There is more local focus, and it is better plan led, but, frankly, housing is meant to have been plan led for years. The focus on heritage assets is good, enhancing enforcement powers is vital, and increasing planning fees is welcome. However, the 12 levelling-up missions at the start of the Bill are all very well, but they read as big woolly statements that count for little. Principal among the negatives, in my view, is the resourcing of planning departments. These are the crucible of good planning decisions, and yet for years there has been a crisis of turnover in planning departments from the planning professionals. There is a shortage of experienced and skilled planning individuals. There is a huge financial resource problem. The prohibitive costs of appeals stop a lot of planning authorities or councils engaging in fighting decisions that they think mistaken and that have been forced against them.

This Bill is the best opportunity for years for more numerous social housing units, which must be provided. That crisis is just getting worse.