Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robert Neill and Bob Russell

Monday 17th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD)]

15. If he will make it his policy to introduce a third party right of appeal in the planning system.

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

The Localism Bill lays out our proposals for the radical reform of the planning system, making it more effective at the local level, reducing the need for appeal, and supporting economic recovery. It does not include a third party right of appeal because the coalition considered it, but believed that the better route, as the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark) just said, is to give communities greater control over what is considered to be appropriate development for their areas at the very beginning, through our neighbourhood planning system.

[Bob Russell]

It would not be so bad if life in the real world were like that. Developers always have the advantage. They have to win only once, but objectors must win every time. A developer can go to appeal; opponents cannot. When a local authority and a developer sing from the same song sheet—in Colchester, the local authority and Mersea Homes jointly wrote the song sheet—there is a serious problem for the local parish council and local residents. I urge the Minister to take that on board and to think again.

[Robert Neill]

I would understand my hon. Friend’s point if no other changes were being made to the system, but we are addressing precisely the point that he makes. In some areas, people currently feel disfranchised by the system. We are enfranchising them by enabling them, through the neighbourhood plan—if approved by a referendum—to prevent unwanted development in their area.