Housing and Regeneration Bill

My Lords, Amendments Nos. 4 and 15 in my name are also in this group. I find myself at something of a procedural disadvantage. Under Report stage rules, I have no right to sum up at the end of the debate on this group. That might mean that then I have some difficulty, depending on what the Minister has said. I make that observation now because it also will depend on what the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has to say at the end. The Homes and Communities Agency is not a body to which we object in principle. As the Minister has explained, it is an amalgamation of the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships. Of course, the nigger in the woodpile, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, has already pointed out, is that it still incorporates what I call the hangover of the new towns legislation. If it were not for that, we would have little difficulty with the foundation of this agency. However, the historical hangover of those planning powers in this age of participation and consultation where everyone works together is a considerable anachronism and I do not like it. Our two amendments were tabled with the express purpose of recognising at the start of the Bill that local planning authorities and local councils already have a major role to play in community development, reconstruction and the provision of social housing. I acknowledge the parts played by housing associations, ALMOs and so forth and acknowledge the funding arrangements that are made. However, the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, referred to the difficulties and complexities of the existing planning system and asked a perfectly reasonable question. If the Homes and Communities Agency has planning powers, will it be exempt from the effects of that system, or, more importantly and significantly, if it wishes to redesign the area for which it is given responsibility by the Secretary of State, how detailed will the planning process be that supervises it? If it has to go back to square one, requiring an adjustment of the regional spatial strategy, any planning gains in terms of time or anything else will completely fall by the wayside. We have difficulty with that. Our approach is to ensure that the Homes and Communities Agency works with local authorities and local planners and takes them on board as part of its committee structure so that local communities have direct involvement. The weakness of the amendments proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, is that, without the direct involvement of local councils and planners, relationships on the ground may be fraught. The occasional examples of where that has happened in the past have not been encouraging. I was somewhat interested when the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said that the Homes and Communities Agency might become a source of planners for local authorities. I am afraid that I read the market rather the other way round. The Homes and Communities Agency is much more likely to take planners from local authorities than to act as a training ground for them. Of course, one has to acknowledge that pre-existing bodies will already have their own planning departments, but there is an eternal problem over the supply of planners. In my admittedly limited knowledge of planners, it is not that they would go from local authorities to the Homes and Communities Agency or vice versa, but that they would leave that sector altogether—and have done for the past few years—for the private sector. They become planning advisers or consultants and represent commercial interests in all sorts of ways because that is more profitable than working for either the Government or local authorities. Of course that particular pressure may disappear like a puff of dust in the wind. All noble Lords expect the housing market to return eventually, first, to stability and then to development. When that happens, the market for planning consultancy will increase. While I entirely accept that work needs to be done to ensure a greater supply of planners, the idea that the Homes and Communities Agency can lend them to local government is not likely to be realistic. My two specific amendments require the Homes and Communities Agency to work through the planning system and co-operate with the relevant planning authorities and other agencies. I think that that is perfectly reasonable. The other amendment deals with Clause 13 and says that, following consultations with the local planning authorities and the Homes and Communities Agency, the Secretary of State may make the orders under Clause 13. Both amendments are directed at one specific point: to ensure that local authorities, not only in their planning capacity but, more importantly, in their much wider community capacity are directly involved from the start when there is any question of the Homes and Communities Agency being involved with planning powers. I regard the retention of that power as an historical anachronism. I rather wish it was not there; I am wholly convinced that it is not necessary. The noble Baroness herself has said that it is intended to be used only in very exceptional circumstances. Given all the complications that we have added to the planning process since these mechanisms were last used, I find it difficult to envisage circumstances in which these powers might actually be used. Be that as it may, it is possible, given what happened at Committee stage, that the Minister will tell me that as a result of her amendments, mine are not necessary. That may well be. If they are not necessary, at least they are doing no harm and there should be no objection to putting them in the Bill. I await the Minister’s reply with interest. I think that that is enough for now.