Housing and Regeneration Bill

moved Amendment No. 95F: 95F: Clause 48, page 22, line 21, at end insert— ““( ) The Secretary of State may give guidance to the HCA to ensure that, in exercising its powers, the HCA does not expose any person to any risk to their health arising from exposure to electric and magnetic fields with a frequency of between 30 and 300 Hertz.”” The noble Baroness said: Most of the amendments in this group are in my name and the name of my noble friend Lord Best and have been supported by the charity Children with Leukaemia. The amendments deal with minimising the health risks associated with living in close proximity to high-voltage power lines. I apologise to the Committee that I was not able to contribute at Second Reading and I am grateful to the Minister for having discussed this with me prior to Committee stage. Therefore, I shall not give a Second Reading speech but try to address my remarks specifically to these amendments. In summary, their basis is the 2005 Draper report. It looked at 29,000 UK childhood cancer cases from the past 40 years and reported that children living within 200 metres of high-voltage power lines from birth had a 69 per cent increased risk of developing leukaemia in childhood. However, the biological mechanisms by which electromagnetic fields actually cause leukaemia are not clearly understood. It may be that the fields attract particles or viruses into that range. It is not certain. So the amendments seek to apply a precautionary approach, in line with the cross-party inquiry into childhood leukaemia, whose main recommendation was that there should be a moratorium on building new homes and schools within at least 60 metres of existing high-voltage overhead electricity lines. These amendments aim to ensure that the Government issues guidance on this, so that planning decisions are not made that may put children at risk or that may need later to be revised. Given the estimates in the SAGE report, 25,000 new homes are likely to be built in close proximity to high-voltage power lines on top of the 25,000 existing homes situated near such power lines. Yet expansion of the National Grid through the Planning Bill and the Energy Bill will increase even further the number of households near high-voltage power lines. The purpose of Amendment No. 95F is to supplement the power given to the Secretary of State by Clause 48 to issue guidance to the Homes and Communities Agency on the exercise of its powers. It does not oblige the Secretary of State to give such guidance but instead seeks to impose a duty on the HCA to consider public health. Amendment No. 96A is similar to the previous amendment. It would ensure that a direction from the Secretary of State was complied with by the HCA. Amendment No. 103A deals with the functions of the social housing regulator, whose responsibility it is to regulate the provision of social housing and ensure a supply of good-quality housing. Objective 2 in Clause 88 is widely drafted. Without the amendment, it would not encompass any measures to address risks to public health arising from electromagnetic fields. My amendment would put the issue in the Bill and is specific to the protection of children from extended exposure to those fields as a result of being housed in zones of electric and magnetic field exposure. It is worth noting that the dangers relate to children, so there is nothing to prevent high-quality retirement homes and retirement community facilities being built in those areas because there is no evidence of a danger to people as they grow older. Linked to the amendment is Amendment No. 110B to Clause 191, which relates to the standards which may be set by the regulator for registered providers of social housing. It gives scope to the regulator to restrict building of social housing within 60 metres of overhead transmission lines, consistent with the recommendation of the cross-party inquiry. Amendment No. 111ZA adds the definition of ““overhead transmission line”” referred to in the amendments. The intention of Amendment No. 104A is to enable if necessary the regulator’s objective to be widened to encompass measures which the Government may bring forward in future; for example, any recommendations from the Health Protection Agency. It would avoid the need for primary legislation to amend the objectives. It is a general amendment which goes far beyond the issue of EMF exposure. Amendment No. 104B would widen the scope of the annual report, which is intended to relate mainly to financial performance, required by Clause 94. It reflects the recommendation of the cross-party inquiry that new housing and schools should not be built within 60 metres of high-voltage transmission lines and vice versa. The purpose of all the amendments is to ensure that the Government have the tools they need to put in place precautionary measures to protect children from the risk of leukaemia at the earliest opportunity. I beg to move.