Growth and Infrastructure Bill

Steve Brine Excerpts

Monday 17th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Nick Herbert]

My hon. Friend has given a very good example of the local concern that is generated when there is inadequate infrastructure to support development.

Where is the mechanism requiring planning authorities to ensure that the necessary local infrastructure is in place when development is permitted? I repeat that the purpose of the new clause is not to prevent necessary housing from being built, but to ensure that it is built at sustainable levels and in the right places. We have to ask why, if the mechanism is adequate now, the circumstances that I have described have already arisen. There is clear evidence that the existing mechanisms are inadequate.

We are moving from a system whereby the gain from development was captured under section 106 agreements to a system involving a community infrastructure levy which, I understand, is intended to ensure that investment can be made in local infrastructure. My constituents will want to hear from the Government how that new system will work, and to be assured that when new housing is proposed under the development plans that local authorities are now undertaking, there will be a mechanism to ensure that the necessary infrastructure is provided along with it.

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

As local authorities—a good example being my local authority in Winchester—develop their new local plans, which they are directed to do under the Localism Act 2011, they are getting perilously close to the numbers in the south-east regional spatial strategy, which my right hon. Friend and I share, or almost shared. I wonder whether anxiety about that situation underlies the new clause.