Planning Bill

I am delighted to discuss this Bill, even at this late hour. I would have spoken earlier, but the Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is still labouring on the issue of bovine TB, which is another matter that takes my interest. I hope not to go over exactly the same ground as earlier speakers. I wish to speak about three pertinent points that are worthy of further amplification. I hope that the Minister will respond in due course and that they will be examined in Committee. I congratulate the Government on introducing a planning Bill at this stage. I know that planning Bills are not unusual, but the planning legislation needs updating. I start from the perspective of feeling that far too often the planning system is not just and not equitable. Too often, I find that constituents who do not have an effective voice are not listened to and that the developer has the whip hand, so I welcome the fact that the Bill aims to increase participation. I have some questions to ask. It was good to listen to the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Martin Horwood), my neighbour, because I share a number of his misgivings. We must widen participation and ensure that the participatory process will stand the test of time. I want to examine participation and to say a few things about the natural environment, which is important when dealing with any planning Bill and larger infrastructure projects. Any such Bill will have implications for the natural environment. Finally, I shall briefly say some things about the impact of energy efficiency changes and renewables on households and, in particular, on listed buildings. As I said when I intervened during the Secretary of State's introductory remarks, I have always been convinced of the need for a process of third party rights of appeal—I make no apology for saying that. We could overcome the democratic deficit in the planning system. At the moment, people feel disempowered when planning applications are dealt with—I do not mean planning applications for loft conversions, but those that would lead to major change in an area. Too often, people are given no voice. They either join an action group, which may or may not represent their views, or they go to appeal in an attempt to mitigate the application's worst effects, and too often they are squashed. I have been to many planning appeals, and the public are squeezed into a short time and given little help to put their case. If they are cross-examined by a barrister who is an expert in planning law, it is not a pleasant experience, because the inadequacy of their legal knowledge is easily exposed, even though the rightness of their case is clear for all to see. I hope that we can have a proper debate and that the two Opposition parties will continue to support third-party rights of appeal. I accept that the details need to be worked out, but when it comes to large infrastructure projects it is even more important that people's voices are heard. Such projects can result in major changes in people's lifestyles and have a huge impact on their environment. The hon. Member for Cheltenham also mentioned the independent infrastructure planning commission. I cannot understand why the Government are so averse to the idea that Parliament should eventually arbitrate on issues of national importance. No one expects all the 30 to 40 major projects a year to require parliamentary arbitration, but there will be some issues that deserve and should have parliamentary scrutiny. For a long time, we have scrutinised private Bills, and I like to think that Members can approach such issues independently. Clearly, some would have to declare an interest and could not sit on the Committee, but other parliamentarians have a role to play in considering planning applications of national importance. We are elected to fulfil that responsibility, and I find it galling that we try to find ways to give it to the great and the good. We are expected to believe that they can be objective and deliberative, but it would be even better if Parliament had the responsibility. We should be careful, because we could be bogged down by some of the larger projects, but it is an abdication of our responsibility if we do not even consider fulfilling that function. I ask the Minister to consider whether, even at this late stage, we should have a different form of accountability than an independent commission. We have a range of them—the Monetary Policy Committee, the committee on climate change and now this one—and we will run out of experts to put on them at this rate. I do not want to labour my second point, because I am sure that colleagues raised it earlier. In order to balance the system, under which larger projects are given permission, we should look at whether we need a national policy statement on the natural environment. Wildlife trusts have long advocated that. Areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks are already formally designated, but my wildlife trust in Gloucestershire believes that we need an appropriate set of rules to protect the landscape and to set out what development is allowed. I have never been in favour of treating AONBs as completely sacrosanct, because that is unreasonable and leads to rural decline. Villages have always been situated in such places and people have wanted to live there to maintain the vitality of those areas. However, there must be rules so that we can make sure that the planning process is sympathetic to the natural environment and that we do not see open-cast mining or inappropriate development and so that we protect the landscape in perpetuity for all our benefits. I hope that, in so doing, we develop the idea of a national spatial framework for land use, so that we decide where, what, and to a certain extent how we are going to develop. In the areas that need to be protected, we need to be clear about the measures we can put in place to make sure that that happens. I declare an interest in relation to my third point, because I am looking to put up solar panels. When one applies for permission, there is a lack of clarity, at least, in how local authorities interpret the planning system. Two different local authorities apparently interpret the rules in two different ways. We can overcome that and I hope that the Bill will allow us to be much more forthright in encouraging energy efficiency measures and the use of renewables to reduce the impact of climate change. It would be even better if we had the feed-in tariff system, but we will not go there at the moment. There is one problem that continually arises in my constituency. An article a week ago last Saturday in The Guardian highlighted one of my constituent's problems. I am talking about people who have the good fortune, I would like to think, to live in a listed property. Listed properties, by their very nature, tend to be older and more difficult to heat. They are in need of some up-rating when it comes to all the different ways in which their energy efficiency mechanisms can be improved. The problem with a listed building is that there is in effect a conflict. People might seek permission under the planning system to make a change and the Bill might enable us to cut through some of the current difficulties in giving permission. That would seem welcome. The problem is that people will then come up against the rules of English Heritage through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport—another Department—which will say, ““This will damage the intrinsic quality of the building.”” Of course, there are extremes and there are buildings that would not be suitable for adaptation, but there are many ways in which buildings can be adapted. If that is done through the sensitive use of the planning system, it is about time we found the wherewithal to achieve that. Too often, we end up with ludicrous situations. For example, one of my constituents put up some solar panels about four years ago, albeit perhaps incorrectly. However, the planning enforcers have suddenly decided that that is outwith what is expected for listed buildings, so they are trying to persuade him—in the nicest possible way—to remove the panels. That is being replicated throughout the country and there is a growing problem. I hope that we can use the Bill to sort out the contradictory state of affairs whereby we encourage people to make their buildings more energy efficient, yet conservation measures make that more difficult. I hope that we can get some satisfaction and assist my constituents.