Local Development Planning (Nuneaton)

Nick Boles Excerpts

Friday 22nd November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Nick Boles)]

It is a pleasure to respond to this debate that my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) has secured on behalf of his constituents, at the end of a lively and interesting day’s debate in the Chamber.

My hon. Friend is right to assert the importance of proper processes being followed by local authorities when drawing up local plans. He will understand that I cannot comment on the particular details of the two plans that affect his constituents, but I hope I can respond to his concerns about the process, and highlight the requirements in the law and the national planning policy framework for how local authorities draw up plans.

A plan must start with evidence of need, and an assessment that is based on objective evidence about the development needs of a community over 15 years, and the next five years in particular. Consultation is the second most important part of the plan—one cannot have a plan without evidence or adequate consultation. When consulting, it is not enough simply to send people a questionnaire, collate the responses and say, “Right. That’s it; we’ve consulted.” Consultation needs to take place at different times through the process. There must be evidence of real efforts to ensure a representative response to the consultation, and of an attempt not only to have ticked a box, but to have understood what different communities, interests and organisations think of the evidence of need and draft plans put in place to meet that need.

My hon. Friend made a strong and persuasive argument about the need to consult people who may not live within the boundaries of the borough drawing up a plan, but who live just across that boundary and will be as affected—possibly more affected—by a proposed development as those who live in the borough drawing up the plan. I would be happy to talk to officials about whether the guidance on consultation makes it clear that it is not sufficient to consult only those who reside in the borough that is drawing up the plan. Under the duty to co-operate in the national planning policy framework, it is clear that boroughs must co-operate across boundaries to understand shared needs and shared concerns. My hon. Friend makes a strong argument for why his constituents should have been consulted, even if it was in relation to a development planned by a neighbouring authority.

My hon. Friend asked about green belt protections. I can reassure him that the protection of the green belt in the law has never been stronger than it is now, in the national planning policy framework. The policy sets out the great importance we accord to the green belt, the fundamental purpose of which is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land permanently open. The green belt’s boundaries should be revised only in exceptional circumstances through the local plan process, and inappropriate development should be granted permission only in very special circumstances. I can reassure my hon. Friend that the test of “very special circumstances”, which would apply to any proposal for development on the green belt that had not been through a local plan process, is a high test in law. It is rare that the “very special circumstances” test is met, and I am sure it would be rare for it to be met in his constituency or, indeed, any other.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

Just to clarify that point, is my hon. Friend saying that until a local plan is set and the local authority has decided to use a piece of green-belt land, green belt cannot be developed until the very high test he mentions is met?

[Nick Boles]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that such a thing could happen only in those very special circumstances and that otherwise, development on the green belt can happen only after a local plan process has been conducted, with all the consultation that we have discussed.

My hon. Friend talked about some appeals against developments that were taking place and some that had been allowed, specifically in relation to the absence of a five-year land supply. I should tell him that those authorities that have an adopted plan—I am glad that nearly 54% of authorities in the country now have one, with, therefore, an approved land supply—tend to find that their decisions stick. That is because the whole point of the national planning policy framework is to say to local authorities: “If you take responsibility, make provision for your needs and have a five-year land supply, your decisions will be respected and not overturned on appeal.” However, if an authority does not do that, it is exposing itself to the possibility—it is no more than a possibility: in two thirds of cases the Planning Inspectorate backs up local authorities’ decisions—of having its decisions overturned. That is what happens in one third of cases, often because the local authority does not have a five-year land supply in its local plan.

That means that it is therefore strongly in the interests of my hon. Friend’s constituents that his local authorities get a move on with plan preparation. He argued that one of the authorities had taken rather longer than was perhaps entirely necessary. It is certainly the case that many authorities have managed to get their plans in place. All I would say is that I would encourage him to continue using every forum, including this one, to put pressure on those local authorities to take responsibility, consult widely, propose plans based on evidence and get them adopted, so that they can start making the decisions and not be exposed to speculative development being allowed on appeal because of the lack of a five-year land supply.

My hon. Friend also talked about local infrastructure of a range of kinds and the capacity of the drainage, sewerage, health and education systems to cope with the level of development proposed. I want to reassure him that the very concept of “sustainable development”, which lies at the heart of the national planning policy framework, means development that can be sustained in every sense of the word, including in terms of infrastructure. Either the capacity in the infrastructure must already exist or there must be commensurate plans within the plan to upgrade and expand it to support any further development.

[Mr Jones]

One of the problems that many of constituents face is that developers are coming along who want to build developments that are quite small, to try to avoid the sustainability questions he mentions. However, more and more of these small developments, of 100 or so houses, are becoming aggregated. What can we do about that?

[Nick Boles]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. Of course, many small developments can add up to a very substantial increase in pressure on infrastructure. That is why a plan is so important. Even if some developments count as, to use the jargon, “windfall developments” that happen outside the plan, the plan nevertheless needs to anticipate the normal level of windfall developments, based on their historical levels and the opportunities for further such developments, and it needs to take them into account in working out whether the local infrastructure, of whatever kind, is able to cope and, if not, how it is going to be upgraded at the right time to be able to do so. That is the whole point of a local plan. That is why we do not have a system of just sitting back and waiting for proposals to come forward; we must anticipate proposals, the likely level of development and then make plans to support that.

Finally, let me assure my hon. Friend—and, perhaps more particularly, through him, his constituents—that there will be a further opportunity for his constituents to make their views known about the draft plans being submitted to the inspector at the examination of the plans by that inspector. It is called “examination in public” for a reason—the public are able to attend and make submissions—and the inspector will want to see that the draft plan has been consulted on widely and that all the objections have been heard, with the evidence to back them up presented to that inspector.

The story is not over; the gate is not closed. There must be further consultation before any plan can be adopted. I know that my hon. Friend, who is tireless in representing his constituents, will be ensuring that—whether it be through him or through local councillors and other bodies—his constituents are heard in those examinations. We are a democracy. Yes, we accept the need for development, but we believe that communities should be able to decide how and where development takes place. It is only through consultation that that can happen.

Question put and agreed to.