My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate—particularly to the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, who may have endeared himself to me by saying that I could be trusted above every other noble Lord in the Chamber. However, I am not sure what the reaction of other noble Lords might have been to that. He also implied that I might not be in government for ever. That is a question which my wife sometimes asks me. I first joined the Government in 1979 and have left it four times, each time thinking it was the last time but each time, back I come. If the noble Lord, when he was a Minister in the DCLG, was given a one-line zinger to deal with any amendments, he was more fortunate than I am this afternoon.
Perhaps I may try to address some of the issues, which to some extent go broader than Amendments 18 and 25. First, I reassure noble Lords that this clause will not stop local authorities seeking to impose planning conditions that address any specific issue—the natural environment, heritage, archaeology or flood mitigation—where those conditions meet the policy tests in the National Planning Policy Framework. Those protections remain in place and changes to the Bill are not needed to maintain this position.
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The noble Lord, Lord Stunell, considers Clause 13 to be slightly more radical than I do. It is designed to do two simple things. First, it guarantees that applicants have the opportunity to discuss pre-commencement
conditions with the local authority before they are imposed on a grant of planning permission. This simply builds on best practice set out in government guidance, and many local authorities already do this. Secondly, the Secretary of State would be able to make regulations setting out what kinds of conditions may or may not be imposed and in what circumstances. The intention is to prohibit those conditions that are already strongly discouraged in the National Planning Policy Framework. Again, the vast majority of local authorities are already following this advice. Were we to seek to add to this list in regulations, that exercise would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny and a full public consultation, open to all interested parties, would be carried out before making the regulations. We have already published draft regulations, in December, to demonstrate the intended use of this power to enable noble Lords to scrutinise the detail.
In response to a number of points, particularly those made by my noble friend Lord Lansley, we have tabled government Amendment 31, which we will come to later, placing a new duty on the Secretary of State to issue guidance on the operation of Section 100ZA and any regulations made under it. That is in answer to calls made by noble Lords during the debate—and to responses to the consultation—to improve the use of planning permissions and provide guidance on how the measures would work in practice. Noble Lords were clear that statutory guidance was essential to make sure that the new measure operates as intended and does not, as some noble Lords have feared, lead to any unintended consequences or delays. I hope noble Lords will recognise that that is an important contribution to the debate.
The noble Lord, Lord Stunell, asked why the Government will not refer to the NPPF in the Bill. As I think I said in an earlier debate, subsection (2) reproduces paragraph 206 of the NPPF which sets out the national policy tests on the imposition of conditions.
The most reverend Primate asked whether subsection (5) shifted power from local authorities to developers. The decision on whether to grant planning permission remains with the local authority. If an applicant disagreed with any proposed condition, the local authority could simply refuse permission.
I turn more specifically to Amendments 18 and 25, both of which deal with the ability of local authorities to impose conditions if those conditions would otherwise be in conformity with the National Planning Policy Framework. I believe that both amendments are unnecessary: the first, as it appears to duplicate the drafting of the Bill at subsection (2) of new Section 100ZA, and the second because it would undermine and weaken the duty on local planning authorities to discuss and seek agreement on pre-commencement conditions with applicants before they were imposed on a grant of planning permission. Perhaps I will deal with that in more detail, in view of the concerns expressed.
Amendment 18 seeks to ensure that the Secretary of State cannot prevent local authorities attaching conditions to planning permission where those conditions meet the policy tests in the NPPF. As I said when dealing with an earlier amendment, the wording in subsection (2) already constrains the proposed regulation-making power so that provision may be made only
where it is deemed necessary to ensure that any condition imposed on a grant of planning permission accords with the policy tests in paragraph 206 of the NPPF—namely, that planning conditions should be imposed only where they are,
“necessary, relevant to planning and to the development to be permitted, enforceable, precise and reasonable in all other respects”.
The regulation-making power in the Bill, and the constraint on that power as provided by subsection (2), significantly strengthens the well-established guidance on the appropriate use of planning conditions, as set out in the framework.
Amendment 25 would remove Clause 13(5) and replace it with a duty for local planning authorities to seek the written agreement of applicants only where those pre-commencement conditions proposed as part of the grant of planning permission do not conform with policy set out in the NPPF. Although I understand the reasoning behind it, unfortunately the amendment simply would not solve the problem. It would allow local planning authorities to continue to impose pre-commencement conditions without the agreement of the applicant that they are necessary and reasonable.
Of course, the NPPF should always be adhered to but evidently there are occasions when conditions are imposed that, despite the good intentions of the local planning authorities, fail to meet the six tests as set out in the framework. That is why all applicants should be given the opportunity to agree to any pre-commencement conditions.
Furthermore, the amendment as drafted suggests that the local planning authority should be able to impose conditions which fail to meet the policy tests in the framework provided that they have the written agreement of the applicant. Of course, under no circumstances do we expect conditions to be imposed which do not pass these tests and conform to national policy. Based on those arguments, and despite the flattery deployed by the noble Lord, I invite him to withdraw his amendment.