Planning Bill

There has indeed been a complete failure to recognise that. My right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal made the point in a slightly different way when he said that we did not need experts in subject areas, and that in many ways that could even be destructive. Other Members said that we wanted the process to involve local representation rather than construction. What we want are experts in judgment, rather than technical experts. Technical experts are not always right in their own expertise. We see fashions and fads based on recent research—good research, but research that turns out to be wrong in the longer term. I am particularly worried about circumstances in which a single commissioner acts on behalf of the IPC. Let me return to the question of costs, about which there seems to have been little discussion, especially in the private sector. In contrast, the impact assessment even discusses the number of work stations that the IPC will have—eight to serve 10 staff—and identifies the cost very precisely as £10,180 per work station. A few paragraphs later, having referred to tens of thousands of pounds for work stations, it states, almost by the way,"““Costs to promoters vary…between sectors””." Under the heading ““Scheme type””, it tells us that the cost of an application for an aviation scheme is £75 million. It seems to me that too much attention may have been paid to the cost of an individual work station, and not enough paid to the bigger costs involved in the private sector. I shall say more about costs in connection with the community infrastructure levy, which has been dealt with in an equally inadequate fashion. On climate change and flooding, the Association of British Insurers has called on the Government to engage much more with the Environment Agency through the Bill, and I agree with what it has said. In the Thames Gateway we have problems with flooding, and with pressure to build housing on floodplains. There is a lack of joined-up government, which may be partly due to the fact that the Department has undergone five major changes since the Government came to office. I do not blame officials; I put the blame fairly and squarely in the Government's court. In the context of flooding, I have grave concerns about infrastructure. In a very good ““Dispatches”” programme, the head of the Environment Agency failed to answer basic questions about the number of power stations built in a floodplain area. I should be interested to know whether Ministers are thinking again about whether that information could be provided, because we need to plan for contingencies. As well as existing power stations, future infrastructure projects should be considered in connection with climate change and flooding, be they power stations, sewage treatment plants or motorways. I was no great fan of the Barker report, but climate change was at its centre. I think it was the hon. Member for Pudsey (Mr. Truswell) who, no doubt noting my presence, appealed to my constituency interest in rock. He suggested that the words ““climate change”” should run throughout every Bill like the words on a stick of rock, but they certainly do not run throughout this Bill. Climate change seems to be somewhat of an afterthought, or footnote. Let me say something about the democratic deficit. In Southend, we have a veritable and indigestible feast of alphabetti spaghetti in the form of acronyms for quango after quango and cost after cost. The IPC seems to be just another example of an undemocratic quango that further distances the electorate from the Government. That does not do the Government justice, it does not do the House justice and it does not do politicians justice. When we knock on doors, we are often told that politicians—all politicians—do not represent the views of the electorate. We need to get closer to the electorate, not further away, handing more power to more quangos. I understand that the CIL—the community infrastructure levy—replaces the previous acronym for the planning gain supplement. Let us be honest: this is just a tax under another name. Rather worryingly, the tax-raising power has been given to a quango rather than to the Treasury, and the Bill does not make clear how much tax can be raised and how. There seems to be little indication of the transitional relationship with section 106 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. Like other Members, I recognise that section 106 is flawed, but it is not made plain how the Bill will improve on it. The levy is simply a tax. The British Property Federation has said in a briefing:"““CIL is essentially a tariff system, or 'roof tax', and there are currently some good examples of this system already working in England. Milton Keynes is perhaps the best known example.””" The last thing we need is yet another tax. If we are going to get it, let us be clear and transparent about what it is. There has been some encouragement for the levy in the industry, which wants clarity. In business, one needs certainty and the levy provides a greater degree of that. But where will the money go? If the Treasury had made its section 106 grab and said that it would take all the money centrally, it would have been a disaster for areas such as Southend. I could accept planning gain money going outside Southend, but not far outside; perhaps to the A13 to improve the infrastructure or to the A127 heading through Essex. But giving that money to Cambridge would make no sense. Some have said that the local area may have an interest in the money going that far afield, but, if so, that should be stated and approved by the local district or county council. We cannot and should not say that a fixed percentage will go every time to a given region. One size does not fit all. Heaven forbid, there may be examples where the local community wants more money to go outside the area, but that should be driven locally, not from Whitehall or by regulations. I am disappointed that there is not more detail in the Bill. I hope that plenty of time will be afforded in Committee to go through every amendment in detail. I also hope that the Government amendments will be focused and deal with some of the detailed concerns, confusion and lack of clarity to which other hon. Members have referred.