Localism Bill

My Lords, in the previous debate I promised to go away and think about what should be done and whether sustainable development should find itself in legislation or in the national planning policy framework. It has been clear throughout the passage of the Bill that this matter has demanded careful consideration. It has been raised over and over again. We discussed this very thoroughly on Report, and I think we established that there was a good degree of agreement between us about the outcome that we are trying to achieve. I said then that there should be no doubt about the Government’s commitment to securing sustainable development through planning and to meeting environmental, social and economic needs in a balanced way. Those are the three legs of the stool that reference the planning side. It has been apparent from the debates we have had on the Bill and in the House that we need to be clear and to go further in setting out how our commitment can be achieved. Having agreed to go away and come back with our view on whether the Bill could be amended to effect this aim or whether it could be part of the consultation on the draft national planning policy framework, it is appropriate to say more on that. I appreciate that the amendment put forward by the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, and his colleagues is designed helpfully to probe our intentions on this, and I accept that the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, was trying to do the same thing. I hope I can provide reassurance. We now have the benefit of the consultation responses and the draft NPPF. As noble Lords have said, there are 14,000 replies, and many of them are going to address this specific issue. We also have the evidence given to the environmental audit committee, so there is quite a lot of external thought coming on this. Of the responses that we have been able to look at so far, many have made a cogent case for defining sustainable development in more detail in the NPPF. Noble Lords have also voiced strong views about what should be included. Clearly, we need to tailor our definition in the light of all the views we have received. This is something that we intend to do as we revise the document. The explanation will not be a legal requirement in the Bill but will address the policy issues in the policy framework. We cannot finalise our policy on the NPPF until we have considered all 14,000-plus responses, so I am not going to try to pre-empt that, but important themes are emerging that we want to take into account as we refine our approach. In particular, we know that we need to address the way in which the definition works alongside the presumption in favour of sustainable development, so it is clear that what we want to see through the presumption is that development is sustainable. The planning system should help to secure net benefits for present and future generations, including promoting strong, vibrant and healthy communities together with protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historic environment—we have always had a commitment to that, but I think some of it got skewed during the early part of the consultation process, almost before it had started—in situations in which there could be limits to the environment’s ability to accept further development without irreversible damage. We will carefully consider what noble Lords and noble friends have said about building on and explicitly referencing the principles that underpinned the 2005 UK sustainable development strategy, which is the relevant strategy. We are crystal clear—as the noble Lord, Lord Greaves, pointed out, my honourable friend Greg Clark, who has been managing this Bill, is clear—that sustainable development has the three legs that we have spoken about: environmental, economic and social dimensions. The purpose of the planning system as a whole is to achieve a balanced outcome—I hope that this to some extent addresses the question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Howarth—that actually reflects all three of these points. From everything that we have heard to date, I believe that the national planning policy framework, rather than legislation, is the place where we can deal with these practical issues most effectively. It is in the national planning policy framework that we can explain fully what we mean by sustainable development and how it relates to planning. The NPPF will be the key policy reference for those preparing plans as well as an important material consideration for dealing with planning applications, so while I understand that the intention behind Amendment 51 is to ensure that there is a detailed definition of sustainable development in the Bill and that it applies to all functions related to planning, my response is the same as when this amendment was put forward on Report. As the debate on Report showed only too clearly, it is difficult to deal with the practical application of sustainable development in legislation. We heard then the wide range of views on what the legal definition should embrace, and other elements were added, such as the cultural and the spiritual. Because of this flow, it really is not suitable to put a definition into the Bill. The amendment by the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, also risks unintended consequences. I said on Report that the more you seek to define sustainable development in legal rather than in policy terms, the more trouble you are likely to get into. You end up creating more and more tests that may be impossible to comply with in every situation. The result is likely to be disproportionate box-ticking to avoid the risk of challenge to decisions, rather than the more considered approach to how the planning of an area can promote sustainable development. What I have said does not, of course, represent any weakening of our resolve to maintain a strong statutory basis for securing sustainable development through planning but keeping it at an appropriate board level. That is found in the existing duty, in Section 39 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, on those preparing local plans to do so with the objective of contributing to the achievement of sustainable development. In the amendment that we tabled on Report, the principle is extended to neighbourhood planning by placing on all neighbourhood planning proposals an explicit condition relating to sustainable development, and the new duty to co-operate in planning for sustainable development that the Bill introduces will ensure that councils and other public bodies co-operate effectively on strategic planning matters, which includes sustainable development. Taken together, these legislative requirements will ensure that the principle of sustainable development runs through all levels of planning—strategic, local and neighbourhood. Because decisions on individual applications must by law be plan-led, the goal of sustainable development will permeate the planning system as a whole. I began by setting out our firm intention of expanding the definition of sustainable development in the national planning policy framework and addressing key concerns that have emerged from the consultation. With that assurance in mind, I would like to explain why I think that Amendment 50 is unnecessary. Ever since sustainable development became a key policy concern in the 1980s, all Governments have issued policy statements on its meaning and application. This Government are no different. We published our vision for mainstreaming sustainable development in February this year, and for the planning system the national planning policy framework will provide a coherent statement of how sustainable development should be interpreted and apply. A statutory requirement to produce guidance would not add to what we are doing already. What matters, as I know noble Lords recognise, is what the guidance contains. We are, as I have explained, committed to getting that right. With the strong statutory underpinning for sustainable development that I have set out and our firm commitment to using the national planning policy framework to set out clearly what this means in practice, I believe that we will be able to deliver what all sides of this House want to see: a positive planning system with a clear and unambiguous mission to deliver sustainable development. I hope that the assurances I have given will enable noble Lords to withdraw their amendments on the clear understanding that I have accepted that this has been one of the most important aspects of our discussions.