Planning Bill

Surely it is only a matter of time before the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr. Pickles) becomes right honourable. I understand that he has not been well and I am sorry about that, but his heart was not really in it this afternoon. He gave strong support to the national policy statement system, which he described as a good innovation. He supported reforming the section 106 system. Like the hon. Member for Beckenham, whose speech was, until the last two minutes, measured and reflective—I look forward to continuing the debate with her—the hon. Gentleman said that he would not oppose the Bill outright. He and the hon. Lady said that they wanted to work constructively with us. They both said that they wanted to try to reach a consensus on the Bill. The logic of their position is that they will not oppose Second Reading. We look forward to that. Let me deal with the community infrastructure levy, which was mentioned by the hon. Members for Brentwood and Ongar and for Beckenham, the right hon. Members for Skipton and Ripon and for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), the hon. Members for Hertford and Stortford (Mr. Prisk), for Poole (Mr. Syms), for Rochford and Southend, East (James Duddridge) and for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake), my right hon. Friends the Members for Greenwich and Woolwich and for Streatham and my hon. Friend the Member for City of Durham (Dr. Blackman-Woods). It is clear, and supported by hon. Members of all parties, that this is not the planning gain supplement. The levy will be used to fund the infrastructure needed to support an area's development. The charges will be set at a level that reflects local councils' priorities for infrastructure and growth and the likely land values. It is not a blank cheque but a charge specifically to meet the costs of infrastructure that are identified through the development plan. It is conceivable that the necessary infrastructure may be outside a local planning authority's administrative boundary or that it may be provided by a public body other than the local authority. So the community infrastructure levy may therefore be passed from the local planning authority to other bodies.