Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications and Deemed Applications) (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2008

We on this side of the Committee are quite happy with what is proposed. However, there seems to be something of a dilemma for the Government and local authorities in that, in seeking to protect householders while keeping business happy, local authorities will not be able to raise the levels of income that they would like to have done. I think that the Minister would accept that this may be problematic for local authorities which, as he has pointed out, have done extremely well in creating efficiencies. There probably is not much further that they can do, although one hopes that they continue to try. There is also a problem with cutting the service down too far. The capacity for development control officers to maximise things like Section 106, and whatever follows from it, requires investment in officer time. It might be a false economy overall to reduce by too much the capacity for local authorities to raise money. So, it is a difficult juggling act and I accept that. The Government have probably got it about right here, but I ask the Minister how they intend to monitor this in future, to ensure that local authorities are not too disadvantaged. The maxima are in some cases still quite low; I do not know whether the Minister can say a word or two about that. Very large planning applications are hugely costly and go on a long time. One is ongoing in my area which we would have hoped to have had resolved well over a year ago. In fact, I have had another letter from the noble Baroness about the ongoing appeal. Costs are being racked up here all the time. I would not think that £250,000 would begin to cover the local authority’s costs on that one. Finally, what has happened to Michael Lyons’s proposal that local authorities ought to be able to set their own local planning fees according to local circumstance?