My Lords, perhaps I may start by welcoming the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, to his position on the Front Bench for the Bill. I am delighted to see him there and, having listened to the debate, he will realise that we are in for a lively time—as I do. I also congratulate all noble Lords for having survived. This is the first time in this House that I have sat in this Chamber and been so hot that I did not know what to do with myself. Noble Lords have all done extremely well to survive.
The noble Lords, Lord Adonis and Lord Whitty, and many other noble Lords have portrayed not only the Bill but the Government as being anti-localist. Perhaps I should say immediately in our defence that we have spent a lot of time in this House making sure that this Government are localist. Beyond the Localism Bill, we have been through the NPPF, and we have had great discussions on localism and giving priority to local authorities. I do not therefore think that this Bill undermines that in any way. The Government are committed to localism. They recognise that in some areas there are small problems that need to be dealt with, and that is what we are trying to do in the Bill.
Perhaps we can start with Clause 1, which has attracted a great deal of attention. The clause is to deal only with those very few situations where an effective planning service is not being delivered locally. We published an impact assessment, which, together with the consultation document on planning performance that supports this clause, is clear about the evidence base. I am sure that by the time we reach Committee, all noble Lords will have read those documents.
As I said in my opening remarks, although the great majority of applications—about 88%—are approved in good time, that is not the situation everywhere. The criteria that we have proposed in relation to local authorities that are failing in their duty would mean designating—I emphasise what my noble friend the planning Minister in the other place said—a very small number of authorities that fail to determine more than 30% of their major decisions on time. That is not a standard of performance that we should regard as acceptable. I will not name specific authorities for the simple reason that circumstances can change before any initial designations are made.
On that point I want to reassure the noble Lord, Lord Tope, and other noble Lords that we have been talking to the Local Government Association about the role that the sector can play in helping other authorities to improve and to stop them being designated. We do not particularly want them to be designated; we want to use this as a way of ensuring that standards are maintained. We want the Local Government Association to help authorities regain their powers if they have been designated.
I was asked by various noble Lords how failing councils will initially be designated. They will be designated initially for 12 months, and that will be reviewed before the year is up. It will be done on criteria that I am sure we shall discuss in Committee. Although applicants can appeal against non-determination, once the statutory period is up, we believe that they should have the choice of accessing a better service from day one, where there is clear evidence that the planning service is not being delivered effectively.
I must underscore that these provisions are not mandatory on every local authority. They give the Secretary of State powers to designate, as I said, this small number of local authorities. This is not a case of swiping at localism; this is saying that there are small areas that we need to deal with. The provisions do not entirely take the powers away from local authorities because they enable the applicant to decide whether they want to leave their application with the designated local authority or whether they wish to go to the Planning Inspectorate. I do not think that the Planning Inspectorate, under these circumstances, will be overwhelmed with extra work.
I am conscious of not having a lot of time. Perhaps I can turn to Clause 5, which deals with information requirements. The noble Lords, Lord True, Lord Taylor of Goss Moor, Lord Teverson and Lord Shipley, all raised points on why that clause is needed as the policy is already set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The clause is needed because there have been court cases and we need to ensure that applicants can get to appeal, if they need to, when there are disputes about information that cannot be resolved. It is also quite unnecessary for local government to have to seek, particularly with smaller applications, a whole raft of information that does not necessarily appear to be germane to the application. People can always ask for that information as the application proceeds, if they wish, but it is clearly not helpful if there is so much information that it never sees the light of day.
Section 106 renegotiations on affordable housing have received quite a lot of attention. As I made clear in my opening remarks, there are already 1,400 stalled sites with more than 75,000 houses that should be under construction. A number of those homes will be affordable, so it is not that there will be 75,000 affordable homes, but within that figure will be such homes. We know that there are many reasons as to why development is not coming forward, and those reasons will vary from site to site. We accept that there will be financial implications as well, so this is not the entirety of the problem.
At the moment there is no central assessment of the viability of every site. Noble Lords asked whether that would be a general requirement, and perhaps I may come back to the point in Committee. However, we know that Section 106 agreements are a significant cost to developers, and historically 50% of the cost is on affordable housing. Our measure provides for a quick and focused review of the Section 106 agreement without reopening the policy context or merits of the planning consent. It will deliver the development of affordable housing. That is because this particular clause relates to the affordable housing aspect of
Section 106, and we know that a number of authorities are already carrying out those negotiations. I agree that the assessment of viability will be key to the consideration of appropriate affordable housing requirements. We are going to issue guidance to establish the key considerations for assessing that viability for the purposes of this clause. I do not agree that the Planning Inspectorate is not able to consider matters of viability. Inspectors regularly examine that aspect in planning appeals and local plan considerations.
My noble friend Lord Taylor of Goss Moor asked why we should single out affordable housing rather than use the Homes and Communities Agency to help deliver affordable housing obligations. I have said that we know historically that 50% of the value of obligations is on affordable housing, and councils are already free to renegotiate any aspect of that Section 106 obligation at any time on a voluntary basis. This measure only provides a backstop where local authorities may not be prepared voluntarily to undertake those negotiations. It gives the developer the right to make sure that they take place. Funding historic aspirations on individual sites for affordable housing is not going to be the best way of securing value for money from the Homes and Communities Agency investment, and our aim is to use guarantees to deliver 15,000 new affordable homes.
One of the other areas that was the cause of considerable discussion is that of Clause 8 and broadband. The provisions of this clause will be instrumental in removing the planning red tape that is currently slowing down, and in some places blocking, the rollout of broadband. The question of state aid was raised by the noble Baroness, Lady Whitaker. I accept immediately that state aid has been a delaying factor, but it is not the only one. Planning issues have been the cause of delays as well. As I said originally, the Government’s ambition is for this country to have the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015 and it is vital that the rollout of this infrastructure is fast-tracked in order to kick-start economic growth, create jobs and support the country’s long-term economic future. However, it is also absolutely vital to ensure that rural areas have broadband and are thus able to take part in that growth and economic improvement. So we believe that the introduction of short-term planning relaxations is justified and we will ensure that the Government’s ambition for superfast broadband and universal broadband coverage is not prevented by planning objections where we believe that they are causing a blockage.
I understand the concerns regarding protected areas, but it is the communities in some of these areas that are in the most need of the upgraded infrastructure. Certain rural areas are in danger of being left behind and are the most expensive and difficult to reach, where underground cabling is often difficult to put in place. If these remote areas are excluded, a number of households and businesses will be left completely behind. In the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Valentine, broadband is an essential infrastructure. My noble friend Lady Brinton described eloquently the ways in which broadband is essential to the rural economy.
9.15 pm
The noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, asked about the number of new poles. It is difficult to estimate as operators will first be expected to explore using the existing infrastructure of poles and ducts before putting up any more. We shall be asking how much use operators plan to make of the relaxation of restrictions on new overhead lines in the forthcoming consultation. Decisions on how that is delivered will depend on the outcome of the procurement process. However, I can reassure my noble friend Lord Shipley that the Bill’s provisions insist that communications providers will have to work closely in conjunction with local authorities and local people, and they will have to get their co-operation before undertaking any work.
Town and village greens are all areas that have generated the most enthusiasm. On the reforms to the system for registering land as town or village green, the noble Lord, Lord Adonis, has suggested that the moratorium on green applications when a planning proposal is first published is Kafkaesque—I think that is how he put it—and unfair. On the contrary, we believe that the trigger event marks the start of the consultation, not the end. It enables communities to have their say on whether land should be developed or kept open, for example, because of its recreational value, without that decision being pre-empted before the process can be concluded.
As my noble friend Lady Eaton said in her speech, this puts the decision in the democratically accountable planning system. Also within that planning system are local and neighbourhood plans, and we expect very much that all this aspect of green, open and designated space will be taken up in those plans. Therefore, they will be well and widely known about by the people concerned.
On the one-stop shop, under Clause 21, the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, asked whether the Planning Inspectorate will provide pre-application advice. I can assure the noble Lord that the planning inspector already provides that advice. I am sure that the noble Lord will appreciate that I cannot comment on detailed individual cases. However, I hope that he will welcome Clause 21, which expands the one-stop shop for major infrastructure and note that we recently consulted on expanding and improving the one-stop shop approach. The noble Lord talked about our special parliamentary procedures. We propose to continue the special parliamentary procedure under the nationally significant project regime in respect of statutory undertakers’ land. We do not believe that this land warrants inclusion as statutory undertakers can make representations as part of the examination process. I am sorry, I think I should have said that we propose removing special parliamentary procedure in respect of statutory undertaker land.
Also on the subject of special parliamentary procedure, the noble Lord, Lord Faulkner, asked about petitions. In future, petitions will be able to be made only about the acquisition of special land. We have responded to the concerns of the Joint Chairman of Committees to address inconsistencies in legislation, and I made that point in my opening remarks as something that has come about as a result of people seeing the way in
which the legislation operates. We are committed to reforming the special parliamentary procedure so it is triggered only in cases where there is a real need for Parliament to confirm a ministerial decision. There will remain four opportunities—I think the noble Lord asked about that—for the views of all interested parties to be taken.
On Clause 24, a number of noble Lords raised questions on how changes to the nationally significant infrastructure regime will operate. We have recently consulted on these proposals and our considered responses to that. We propose to set out the types of development in secondary legislation, but it will be for the Secretary of State to reach a view on national significance following the receipt of a request to use the regime. Applications accepted into the nationally significant projects regime will be decided within 12 months from the start of examination.
The noble Baronesses, Lady Parminter and Lady Young, raised the issue of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. I remember the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, raising fracking ages ago. The Government support industries and endeavours which pursue new energy sources, so long as tapping these proves to be technically and economically viable and can be carried out with full regard to the protection of the environment.
On business rates and Clause 25, the noble Lord, Lord Tope, asked how many ratepayers would have seen reductions in their bills at the 2015 revaluation. I have said that it is not possible at this stage to say precisely how many would have benefited, but the Valuation Office Agency’s high-level analysis suggests that only 300,000 premises would have seen reductions compared to 800,000 that would have seen increases. That would have had an impact.
Finally, I want to touch briefly on Clause 27. I apologise that I am not going to have time to deal fully with that last point. I want to remind the House that this is a new employment status, which employers may wish to use if it suits them. However, it is important that we do not confuse employee shareholders with the employee ownership agenda, which is now being taken forward following the Nuttall review. We have consistently stated that guidance would be provided as to how this new employment status will work and we will update the House as guidance is developed. I note noble Lords’ concerns about the type of shares that will be issued but we have been very clear that it will be up to individual contracts to determine the nature of the shares.