My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendment 59B in my name and that of my noble friend Lady Whitaker. We are dealing here with national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty. The issue is how to get superfast broadband to them. The key point on which we are all agreed is that this needs to happen superfast. No one disputes this. The DCMS consultation paper, published yesterday, states:
“We want to ensure that planning-related barriers to deployment are minimised at a time when upgraded broadband infrastructure is being rolled out to the rural or remote areas where connectivity is needed the most”.
I think that the whole House will agree with that.
The consultation paper published yesterday makes an excellent case for why we need a rapid rollout of superfast broadband. It points out that in the national parks there are more than 22,000 businesses, of which more than 70% are SMEs. In areas of outstanding natural beauty there are more than 61,000 businesses, of which 74% are SMEs. It also points out that there are more than 153,000 homes in the national parks, and more than 467,000 in areas of outstanding natural beauty. The consultation paper states:
“By providing planning certainty, the aim is to encourage operators to invest in new infrastructure to support greater rural connectivity for householders and SME businesses in protected areas, supported by the fact that whereas 84% of urban premises have superfast broadband, the figure drops to just 19% in rural areas”.
However, having set out those figures on why it is important to get superfast broadband into rural areas, including our national parks, as soon as possible, the paper totally fails to make an argument in respect of the planning system to bring this about.
Like other noble Lords, I have spoken to those in charge of our national parks. They tell me that, far from obstructing superfast broadband, they are desperate for it. They see it as absolutely vital to their communities and to their sustainable futures. They have almost invariably given the consents required for the installation of the necessary cabinets and masts through the existing prior notification procedure.
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The barrier to superfast broadband being installed is not planning, but the commercial incentives and funding for the broadband suppliers to install the infrastructure in the first place. Just to quote the figures, over the past five years, in the nine national park authorities in existence over that period, there were 392 prior notifications and 97% of those were approved. Two-thirds of national park authorities have not rejected a single application in the past five years. There were 144 planning applications for telecoms equipment and only three were refused.
Furthermore, of the cases cited by BT and quoted by the Government of planning delays to superfast broadband rollout, the English National Park Authorities Association does not believe that any of them relate to national parks or to areas of outstanding natural beauty. The Government's consultation published yesterday tacitly acknowledges as much. It provides plenty of evidence that there is disparity in the availability of superfast broadband in rural areas, but nothing to show that planning rules are the obstacles.
To quote Dr Nigel Stone, chief executive of the Exmoor National Park Authority, in a letter to me,
“All National Park Authorities are working with their respective county councils to draw up plans for broadband rollout in National Parks. All are supporting or leading local bids to the Rural Broadband Fund to help go the final mile, and several National Park Authorities are putting some of their own resources into helping to extend broadband coverage”.
Dr Stone's letter continues:
“There seems little merit in replacing a well-established ‘prior notification’ process that includes local consultation, with a non-statutory code that would also require consultation but with no assurance to local communities that any concerns they raise will be heeded”.
Dr Stone also emphasises that working with the national park authorities can save significant sums by, for example, co-ordinating trenching work.
The case has not been made that Clause 8 will do anything to accelerate the rollout of superfast broadband. However, the planning process changes contained in Clause 8 are of great concern to the national park authorities, not because of any opposition to the rollout of superfast broadband. On the contrary, as I have stressed; they want this. Their concern, rather, is about the suspension of established consultation procedures and the precedent that that sets for doing the same in other cases where it might be genuinely damaging to the amenities and the welfare of national parks.
This is partly because of the very broad scope of Clause 8 itself, which, even given the assurances of the noble Baroness at Second Reading, still encompasses all telecommunications equipment, not just that relating to broadband, although here again the national parks are generally keen to see better mobile coverage for their residents and visitors. It is also because of the precedent that will be sited in other cases.
I have three questions for the Minister. First, why is this provision necessary at all? Secondly, why is it not more tightly drawn, if it is necessary? Thirdly, if it is necessary, tightly drawn or not, why is the guidance on how companies should consult with local planning authorities not to be statutory so that it has greater force? We will listen keenly to the Minister's response to these questions and I hope that she may be able to indicate some willingness to take account of concerns around the House, including colleagues on the Lib Dem Benches.
On 29 November, when Clause 8 was debated in the House of Commons, Nick Boles, the planning Minister, said to the Town and Country Planning Association:
“England is famous for the beauty of its landscapes. From the Yorkshire Dales to the South Hams, from the Weald of Kent to the Cumbrian Lakes, England glories in countryside of which generations of man and nature are joint authors … The beauty of England is its finest asset and, for each of us, our most precious inheritance … I truly believe that nothing would do more to improve the health and happiness of the British people than if more of them got to spend more of their lives surrounded by beauty. Beauty lifts, calms, excites, inspires”.
Who could disagree, apart from the fact that generations of women as well as men can claim joint authorship of the landscape? But this simply poses the question: why are we proposing to give such extensive powers to private companies, which might damage the most beautiful landscapes in the entire country, jointly authored by women, men and nature? I beg to move.