I understand that and it is a piece of constituency pleading so skilful that I fear I may have to address it in greater detail in writing. I will do that in the next few days if the hon. Gentleman will allow me.
Local councils and communities are at the heart of the planning process and we have no intention of changing that. We reject the flawed approach of top-down Whitehall housing targets and it is for local councils to determine where development should go and how best to meet housing need. That is why our policy is to revoke Labour’s regional strategies as soon as possible. Indeed, we have laid an order in Parliament to revoke the east of England regional strategy, which will come into force on 3 January.
Our reforms have given significant additional power to councils and communities but with that comes the responsibility to exercise planning functions properly. The measures in the Bill for tackling poor performance are aimed squarely at councils that are failing to deliver an effective service. Applicants can reasonably expect timely and good quality decisions—justice delayed is justice denied. Most councils deal with planning applications efficiently, but a small minority need to raise their game
if we are to ensure that their local areas do not lose out in the recovery that is now under way. The Bill is therefore not about removing local people’s involvement in planning decisions. Where a decision is made by the Planning Inspectorate, local people will still have their say in the same way as they would if the decision were made by their local planning authority, but slow decisions are bad for local communities as well as for the wider economy.
The Bill also seeks to broaden the scope of the nationally significant infrastructure planning regime to promote investment, so that developers of large-scale business and commercial schemes will have the option to request to use the infrastructure regime. Given that the speed with which large-scale major applications are determined is falling, it is right to offer developers an alternative.
The need for affordable housing remains high, and the coalition is committed to unlocking stalled sites where affordable housing obligations make them unviable because they are economically unrealistic or were negotiated during Labour’s housing bubble. Let me repeat: affordable housing that is stalled is not affordable housing; it is non-existent housing. The Bill will enable developers to challenge the affordable housing elements if they make the site unviable.
As well as making those reforms to the planning system, the Bill will facilitate infrastructure investment, which is crucial for jobs and growth. Our ambition is for the UK to have the best superfast broadband of any major European country by 2015. It is vital that the deployment of broadband is fast-tracked to support the UK’s long-term economic future, but roll-out is being delayed or blocked because of planning requirements. As a result of this Bill alone, we estimate that 4.4 million more people will have access to superfast broadband. Without that measure, many hard-to-reach areas would be left unserved.
The Bill also amends the Electricity Act 1989 so that developers of power generating stations that want to apply to change their projects will in most cases need to undertake only a three-month consultation, rather than going through the whole process of applying for consent again. That could unlock investment decisions across a range of technologies, bringing thousands of new jobs and millions of pounds of investment to the UK economy.
As well as making the reforms I have mentioned, the Bill cuts red tape to speed up processes. In particular, it carries forward recommendations from the Penfold review of non-planning consents, most significantly the reforms to the town and village green registration system, which we discussed albeit briefly just before Third Reading.
As well as making the reforms to the planning system and unlocking infrastructure investment, the Bill contains two important economic measures. First, it postpones revaluation 2015 in England to avoid local firms and shops facing unexpected hikes in their business rate bills over the next five years. As business rates are linked to inflation, there will be no real-terms increase in rates over the period. That reform will provide certainty for business to plan and invest, supporting local growth. Secondly, as we have discussed at some length, the Bill creates a new employee-shareholder status to increase the range of employment contracts that businesses and employees can use. The measure is about increasing choice and flexibility in the employment relationship.
The Bill makes it absolutely clear it will be for the employer to choose to offer the new status, and for an individual to choose whether to accept it.
In conclusion, the House this evening has the chance to vote for practical measures to boost growth. The Bill will unblock delays in the planning system, encourage faster roll-out of superfast broadband, bring forward investment in energy projects, and give employers and employees more choice and flexibility. The Opposition repeatedly attack the Government for failing to do enough on growth, as if some magic wand could repair at a single stroke the terrible damage they inflicted on our economy. In the Leader of the Opposition’s speech to the CBI last month, he said:
“Enterprise and job creation are fundamental to the good economy and good society, and I will lead a party that understands that at its core”,
but businesses that back the Bill will see that, when his party has the chance to live up to those words and support reforms to promote growth, it votes against them. Government Members instinctively understand enterprise and will back the risk-takers and those willing to invest in creating jobs and growth. We want to help to modernise our economy, our infrastructure and our planning system. Only one part of this country resists modernisation—the Labour party. Better planning, more affordable housing, faster broadband, bigger investment in infrastructure and a boost for share ownership are the core of the Bill, and I commend it to the House.
9.10 pm