Localism Bill (ways and means)

I intend to finish my speech soon, for reasons that I have already given. In a debate lasting less than two hours, a Minister spoke for the best part of an hour. I want to allow time for the maximum number of contributions to be made by Back Benchers. The Government propose to introduce a regressive system that will reallocate moneys away from low-demand areas, and will undermine sustainable development by encouraging growth on the most developable and profitable rather than the most sustainable sites. The planning system must deliver sustainable development, but instead of including a definition of sustainable development in the Bill, the Government indicated in the Budget that they intended a profound shift away from sustainable development as the objective of planning towards a market free-for-all. An effective planning system should contribute to the delivery of our future needs, and that includes helping us to meet our carbon commitments in the fight against climate change. The Government, however, have promoted a toothless duty to co-operate, which will not contribute one iota to the mitigation of climate change. A truly effective planning system should also be responsive to local needs, demands and aspirations, but the Government's proposals in relation to neighbourhood planning are half-baked and a bureaucratic nightmare. They are also a sham. Like other parts of the Bill, the localism agenda with regard to planning is wholly undermined by the Government's attempt to face in two directions at once. On one hand we have the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government trumpeting the devolving of power to local people; on the other hand we have the Chancellor, who wants to make it easier for developers to bypass the planning system altogether. I can only assume that in the battle between the Treasury and the DCLG, the Treasury has won the day. How else can we explain the introduction of new clause 15, which enables financial benefits such as the new homes bonus to be a material consideration in the determining of planning applications? Ministers and others on the Government Benches should be clear about what they are voting for today. The Campaign to Protect Rural England, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Town and Country Planning Association all condemn the proposals. The CPRE has said:"““We believe that this amendment would fundamentally distort the planning system by encouraging local authorities to base decisions on the financial implications rather than the spatial merits of the proposed development. It could also undermine the plan-led system and result in the spread of developments that go against the views of local people.””" That view is echoed across the planning community, and will soon be heard in Members' surgeries up and down the country. The new clause undermines the fundamental principle that planning decisions should be made in the long-term public interest, taking account of land use consequences and of what local people actually want, rather than being based on financial rewards for the decision-maker. It stands on its head what the Government said in the new homes bonus design document, referred to earlier, which was released on 17 February. It also directly contradicts a written statement released on the same day by the Minister for Housing and Local Government who said:"““The New Homes Bonus also sits alongside the existing framework for making planning decisions. Responsibility will remain with local authorities to work within this framework to continue to ensure that development is suitable and sustainable by meeting local needs and national planning policy.””" The new clause represents a fundamental conflict of interests within planning. We must therefore ask why the proposal was not considered earlier. Could it be because since 17 February Ministers have been in receipt of a legal opinion saying that the proposed new homes bonus scheme would introduce an unlawful element into the planning decision-making process, and that any planning permission granted on the basis that the scheme, or a grant under it, is a material consideration would stand a good chance of being quashed in a claim for judicial review? Faced with the news that their cornerstone housing policy was doomed, Ministers have decided to disregard the public interest and have rigged the planning system instead. Their cries of ““Localism”” are sounding hollower by the minute. This new clause was not considered in Committee, and this profound change to the way in which planning works has been introduced with no consultation, dialogue or debate. We will vote against it. What of the Government's amended duty to co-operate? Their most significant proposed change is to use the local development framework soundness test as a sanction to ensure that co-operation takes place. That sounds reasonable, except that it is a retrospective test. Unlike our amendments, the Government's amendments do not specify what is meant by co-operation. It will be extremely difficult for any inspector to assess definitively whether there has been adequate co-operation. It could take several years to judge whether or not co-operation has been successful, a period we can ill afford given the pressing need to meet housing needs, to modernise our infrastructure and to respond to the increasing scientific evidence of climate change. In short, the Government's proposed duty to co-operate remains essentially voluntary, does not specify a unified product in terms of plan or strategy, does not specify the issues to be dealt with, and does not create an effective boundary to shape the extent of co-operation. It is certainly true that the proposal in general is a step in the right direction, but this measure simply will not work. On the other hand, our measures go some way towards establishing the planning system the country needs. The duty we propose places sustainable development as a core objective of this co-operation, specifies the scope of the co-operation required, specifies a minimum number of issues to be the subject of co-operation including climate, housing, biodiversity and transport, and is based on a spatial area and not neighbouring authorities only, because that does not work for the most strategic planning issues. Our proposed duty also places a statutory requirement on local authorities to prepare a joint strategy that addresses a number of specified strategic issues. This duty will not repair the damage the Government are intent on inflicting on the planning system, but it may salvage something from the wreckage. What in terms of sustainable development can we retrieve from the wreckage? At a time when the country is facing unprecedented challenges in economic recovery, climate change and increased urbanisation, the need for us to achieve sustainable development and to address these issues effectively has never been greater. However, the abolition of regional spatial strategies has removed many of the mechanisms that have provided an impetus for action towards achieving sustainable development and helping to monitor progress. Looking to the future, achieving sustainable development must be at the heart of the planning system and the Bill, and we therefore welcome new clause 6, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North (Joan Walley), which does exactly that: it puts sustainable development at the heart of the Bill. It is also absolutely vital that the adoption of short-term measures to drive economic growth and the abolition of important Government advisers such as the Sustainable Development Commission do not lead us into making decisions that are unsuitable for the country in the long term. Somewhere in the planning system consideration must be given to the how actions we take now will have an impact on future generations. In short, the Government need to be clear about the purpose of planning sustainable development. The issue is even more imperative given the Government's intention under new clause 15, which would give financial payments a privileged status—first among equals—as no other issue, such as housing or climate change, is specifically identified in the primary legislation as material. In the light of that, there is no justification for not specifying sustainable development in the Bill. The proposed duty to consider climate change applies only to the preparation of local development frameworks and not to neighbourhood planning. Our proposals on climate change would ensure that, alongside our approach to strategic planning and the approach taken by my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent North to sustainable development, the mitigation of climate change would be at the heart of the local plan-making process. The new provisions in the Bill on neighbourhood planning have been drafted to avoid the climate change duty. Do the Government seriously expect the carbon emissions for each neighbourhood forum and each local development plan magically to add up to our national target on climate change? However, the climate change issues are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Bill's clauses on neighbourhood planning. The Government have proposed a series of amendments to the neighbourhood planning process arising out of our debates in Committee. As on the duty to co-operate, the limited progress is welcome. The Government have agreed to increase the number of people needed to initiate a forum from three to 21, so there is no longer the prospect of three men or three women in the Dog and Duck constituting themselves as a neighbourhood forum. On our other proposals to ensure democratic accountability no concessions have been made. The Government clearly see no need to ensure that such forums are accountable, and so 35% of the country will be covered by democratic bodies—parish councils, which, at their best, are admirable institutions— while the remaining 65% will be represented by forums with no democratic legitimacy and no accountability. We want communities to have a greater say in planning and to have a say over their local area, but forums should be democratically accountable and involve at least one local councillor. It is simply wrong to downgrade democracy. We also want to give local communities a greater say over the future of their local high street. I see today that, as a result of Labour's amendments in Committee, Mary Portas, who is described as a ““TV retail guru””, is to carry out a Government-backed review aimed at halting the ““decline”” of the high street in England. Retail summits are fine, but they are not an alternative to practical action. The Government should therefore back the concrete proposals for change that we have put before the House today. In Committee, we moved amendments to enshrine the ““town centre first”” policy in primary legislation. We welcomed the all-party consensus that there clearly was on the importance of this issue and the Government's commitment to placing the ““town centre first”” policy at the heart of the national planning policy framework. Although that was a step in the right direction, we need to do more to put the heart back into Britain's high streets. New clause 29 would require a local planning authority to include a retail diversity scheme within its local development framework. Crucially, the scheme would be developed through a consultation process with the local community, with the voices of local people and of local retailers heard. The new clause establishes a vital goal: the promotion of retail diversity, striking the right balance between large and small businesses and, in particular, focusing on establishing and growing small and specialist retail businesses. Healthy and diverse high streets are the heart of local communities. High streets and neighbourhood shopping parades are the engine room of thriving communities and local economies. Hon. Members will be all too aware that our high streets have suffered in the downturn. The new clause is not anti-supermarket but we must ensure that the supermarkets do not succeed at the expense of the high street. We must harness their power to better the community as a whole. In short, Labour wants to give communities a real say in the future of their high streets and the power to make the changes that we want. I know that Ministers will tell the House that our proposal to put the heart back in the high street is not necessary since measures on the ““town centre first”” policy will be included in the long-awaited national planning policy framework, a document that has now attained near mythical status—nay, that of the holy grail. All that information is supposed to be contained within the document yet, like the holy grail, no one has seen it. I would submit that this matter—the future of our high street—is so important that it warrants specific legislation. The new clause ensures that communities and not central Government decide how their retail provision should change and grow to meet their needs. The Government's planning Minister, the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, the right hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells, has said that he wants to give communities real power over their local areas and will look to strengthen the role of our high streets in our towns and cities. If the Government mean what they say, they should accept our changes to the Localism Bill and give local people a real say over their high street. On retail diversity, sustainable development, the issues incorporated in our duty to co-operate and many of the other issues raised today, I expect the Minister might tell us, ““Don't worry, it'll be in the national planning policy framework.”” Frankly, however, I would not be surprised if Ministers told us next that we could look forward to reading about the meaning of life in the NPPF. The NPPF has been trailed by the Government as a document that will streamline national planning policy guidance, but at every turn the Government have committed that something additional will be in the NPPF. The NPPF is clearly a document of vital importance to the proposed planning changes, but do we have a copy of it to read in draft alongside the Bill? No. There is considerable uncertainty about what the NPPF will be, what it will look like, its status within the planning system and the process for its development and adoption. Promises from the Government that it will all be okay when the NPPF is published simply will not wash. It is wrong that such a major document, so relevant to the radical changes in the Bill, has not been published alongside it. In conclusion, we have in front of us today a blueprint for a planning system that will deliver nothing but chaos. It is full of contradictions in its objectives and overloaded with inconsistencies in the policies designed to deliver those same confused objectives. The Government claim that the Bill will deliver balanced economic growth and the housing we need, safeguard the environment and increase local engagement in planning. In reality, it dismantles the strategic planning system and the means to meet our housing need, deliver sustainable economic growth, meet our energy needs and capacity, safeguard our environment and mitigate climate change. While Ministers claim the Bill delivers localism, the sum total of their proposals are neighbourhood forums that will be thoroughly opaque, undemocratic and unaccountable. Any hopes that the Government mean what they say about empowering communities, delivering on sustainable development or mitigating climate change are utterly discredited by their proposal to rig the planning system to make their regressive new homes bonus deliver housing in the wrong areas. I hope therefore that Government Members will support our amendment to strengthen strategic planning and give communities a real say on their local high street, and that they will vote against the Government's new clause 15, which will fatally undermine our country's planning system.