I know that colleagues across the House have dedicated a huge amount of time to getting the Bill to this point, and I thank them for their thoughtful
contributions in Committee, in their engagement with me since I took office, and throughout today’s session, which I think has illustrated how important this piece of legislation is to the future of this country. It is further evidence of the commitment of Members across the House to finding solutions enabling us to build more homes in the right areas.
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I thank my right hon. Friends the Members for Aldridge- Brownhills (Wendy Morton), for Chipping Barnet (Theresa Villiers) and for Basingstoke (Dame Maria Miller) and my hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood (Kelly Tolhurst) for their points on the housing need allocation. I can confirm for my right hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke that planning inspectors will be instructed to ensure that they are more responsive to the needs of local communities, and we will review the soundness test. My hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby) was right to point out the need to ensure that local areas bring forward the housing we need.
I want to pay special tribute to a number of MPs, including my right hon. Friends the Members for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Mr Clarke) and for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), who, during their time as Housing Secretary this year, both helped to expand and enhance the Bill, building on the work of the current Secretary of State and that of my right hon. Friend the Member for Newark (Robert Jenrick).
I would like to touch on the critique made by the those on the Opposition Benches about the infrastructure levy. That critique is wide of the mark and altogether misses the point of the levy. For too long, there has been too little incentive for developers to marry their developments to good-quality infrastructure and new affordable housing. That is going to change with the infrastructure levy, which is a huge upgrade on the status quo and will allow all English charging authorities to adopt a more coherent and streamlined approach. It will bring to an end one of the principal issues behind the current shortages of affordable homes: the unequal negotiating positions between under-resourced local planning authorities and deep-pocketed developers.