This has been a short debate on a technical but important area of the Bill that cuts to the core of our belief in this country in the importance of people’s property rights and the rightly very clear restrictions we place on the circumstances in which the state can compulsorily acquire people’s property.
I will start by responding to the official Opposition’s new clause 3. The hon. Member for City of Durham (Dr Blackman-Woods) explained to the House why she believed there should be a fundamental review of compulsory purchase law. A similar new clause was debated in Committee. She also made this point in the debate last week on the affirmative regulations arising from the Housing and Planning Act 2016. I suspect that compulsory purchase is one area on which it is easier to agree on the need for fundamental reform than on what that fundamental reform should be. She is right that most of the people who gave evidence to the Committee, while supporting what the Government were doing, believed that there was the potential for more far- reaching reform, but there was no consensus on what it should be.
The Law Commission looked at this issue, and what the Government did in the Housing and Planning Act, and what we are doing in the Bill, reflected its conclusions.
It came up not with a complete rewrite of the law, but with a focused set of reforms. To come to the point raised by the hon. Member for Wolverhampton South West (Rob Marris), the reason we are coming back to this is that when we consulted on the previous legislation, people raised some fresh points around which there was a consensus, and that is why the Government have proceeded.
Let us see what impact the reforms in the 2016 Act, which are only just being implemented, and the reforms in the Bill will have. I hope that they will make it easier for people to use compulsory purchase when it is necessary to do so, and make the process a simpler and clearer one. We will then be in a better position to consider whether any further reform is necessary.
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I am happy to confirm to the hon. Member for City of Durham, as I have said to her before, that if there were a growing consensus about a specific package of more wide-ranging reform, the Government would look at it, as we have proved we will do in respect of the 2016 Act and this Bill. What I do not want to do, however, is to write into legislation a statutory requirement to conduct a review. My experience on inheriting the 2016 Act is that it is full of requirements for the Government to review this and that, but I want my officials focused on the fundamental issue of how to get this country to build the homes that we desperately need, not on conducting endless reviews.
It is worth putting on record that the Opposition amendment would prevent the Secretary of State from commencing the provisions in the Bill—we all agree that they are an improvement—until we had conducted the review. The Secretary of State and I are of one mind that what we need in this area of policy is to get on with things and not have further delay. Although I am sympathetic to the view of the hon. Member for City of Durham that if a consensus for a more radical review develops over time, we should look at it, I urge her to withdraw new clause 3.
Three amendments were tabled by my hon. Friends the Members for The Cotswolds (Geoffrey Clifton-Brown) and for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill). Let me begin by reassuring my near neighbour and hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst that he did not miss much at all in the first minute of the debate. He missed me trying to explain two very technical amendments, so he will probably consider that time well saved. I have had the opportunity to meet both my hon. Friends to discuss these issues, and I am grateful to both of them for the time they took to raise their concerns with me. I hope that I can offer at least partial reassurance on the points that their amendments were designed to raise.
In new clause 12, my hon. Friends sought to obtain a commitment on when the Government will make regulations in three areas of the reformed compulsory purchase regime. The most pressing, it was clear, are the regulations to impose a penal rate of interest on late payments for advance payments of compensation for compulsory acquisition. Allied to these are the powers to make regulations prescribing claim forms for compulsory purchase compensation and advance payments for compensation. Those powers are contained in sections 192 and 194 of the 2016 Act.
My hon. Friends also asked, understandably, when the regulations setting the rates of interest for outstanding payments of compensation and late payments for advance payments of compensation for temporary possession of land under clauses 19 to 21 will be made. I shall outline to my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds and the House what we have to do to make these things happen.
I shall deal first with late payments and advanced payments of compensation for compulsory acquisition. The power for the Treasury to make regulations to set the interest rate is contained within section 196 of the Housing and Planning Act 2016. The provisions in that section are, however, being amended by clauses 34 and 35. Once the Bill receives Royal Assent, subject to the will of this House and the other place, we shall commence clauses 34 and 35 as soon as possible, together with section 196 of the 2016 Act. My colleagues in the Treasury will arrange for the regulations setting the penal rate of interest on late payments of advance payments to come into force alongside the substantive provisions.
We shall commence the other substantive provisions on compensation and advance payments in sections 192 to 198 of the 2016 Act and clause 33 of this Bill on the same day. Clearly, I cannot predict precisely when that day will be, because it depends on the passing of this Bill, but I am happy to put on record that I recognise the extreme importance for those whose land is being taken that advance payments are made on time so that they can make alternative arrangements. The Government are therefore committed to bringing these provisions into force as soon as they are able to do so.
On the powers in sections 192 and 194 of the 2016 Act, the Government do not intend to make regulations to prescribe claim forms immediately. We intend to start with non-statutory forms in guidance, which will allow them to be easily amended in the light of initial experience. If they are a success, there would not be a need to legislate. I am sure hon. Members would agree that we should legislate only when there is a clear need to do so.
Finally, on the rates of interest for temporary possession, the commencement strategy for the new temporary possession regime is still in its infancy. I can say, however, that there should be no difficulty in bringing the interest rate regulations into force at the same time as the commencement of the substantive provision. I hope that that has reassured my hon. Friend the Member for The Cotswolds.