The debate has summed up just how important the planning system is to many of those who write to us, or who come to see us in our surgeries every week. My hon. Friends have spoken passionately and clearly about the importance of empowering local communities, and all those in my Department who have responsibility for planning understand how deeply a decision about where a new development should go affects those who live or work nearby.
Good planning is about more than just buildings. It is more than just maps, numbers, assessments and forms, and more than calculations about housing need and the ability of our vibrant high streets to deliver local growth. Good planning is about people, and we have heard good things said by good people this evening. Good planning is about seeing past documents and planning applications, and being able to judge the impact of the changing nature of our places on the families and communities that grow up there.
That is why, as my hon. Friends have rightly outlined, neighbourhood planning is so important. It is the future of a community being agreed and designed by that community, and such work must be respected. It is about local people deciding where their children will live when they grow up and leave home. It is about local decisions that affect the future of our schools and our shops. That is why it is so effective and empowering—the ultimate localism. Local support for house building has doubled in the past four years, while opposition to local house building has more than halved. We have empowered more than 1,800 communities to start the process of neighbourhood planning, which we introduced in 2012, and nearly 10 million people in 72% of local authorities are now represented. On average, 89% of people voted yes in their neighbourhood plan referendum.
We are seeing that engagement with the planning system leads to undeniably positive results, which is why I am so passionate about getting right our reforms and our delivery of neighbourhood planning. It is reassuring to hear so many colleagues making their case so passionately to ensure that the voice of their local community is heard and properly represented in the planning system, as that is exactly what neighbourhood planning is about. There is no point in building expectation into the planning system if we then to slow it down with red tape and extra bureaucracy. There is no point in getting local authorities to engage properly with local communities if we then prevent building with other red tape and regulations. That is why we have made our points in the debate about drainage and energy-efficiency. It is important that we get this right, that we do the work to get this right, and that we listen to what colleagues have said to make sure that we do just that in the period ahead. We are here to deliver the housing that our country needs.
10 pm
Debate interrupted (Programme Order, this day).
The Speaker put forthwith the Question already proposed from the Chair (Standing Order No. 83F), That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 97.
Question agreed to.
Lords amendment 97 accordingly disagreed to.
The Speaker then put forthwith the Questions necessary for the disposal of the business to be concluded at that time (Standing Order No. 83F.)
Government amendment (a) made in lieu of Lords amendment 97.
Government amendment (a) made to Lords amendment 111.
Lords amendment 111, as amended, agreed to.