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Mr. Tom King (Bridgwater) indicated dissent.
Mr. Steen: If it was not my right hon. Friend, can someone else put me right? What am I bid? I understood that there would be an inquiry into some on-costs.
Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate): I would like to help my hon. Friend. There was an opportunity in the Budget to change the levels of stamp duty on brownfield and greenfield land and to equalise the rate of VAT on the development of new build and repairing older houses. Unfortunately, the Chancellor missed the opportunity in the Budget to introduce legislation to do that, but he has promised an inquiry. The Government have been considering the matter for two years, but, regrettably, they are still considering it and have not acted.
Mr. Steen: I am most grateful to my hon. Friend for that explanation. That is just what I was going to say, but I did not have the words. The Chancellor missed a great opportunity because there will be no incentive to build on brownfield rather than greenfield sites.
I need to move on from my consideration of the first half of the Bill. I think that the House will have got the idea. Local authorities will publish an annual audit. It will be a booklet or a glossy report that one can pick up at the service station or the library and it will contain information on where the land and buildings are situated and on who owns them. It will create a strong community pressure that will be brought to bear on the people who own the land. For the first time, there will be a local index of who owns what. NLUD is a national register in the Department, which one can see on the internet, but it will not have much local impact.
Mr. Gareth R. Thomas (Harrow, West):
If one accepts that such an audit is required, does the hon. Gentleman think that it should also include housing stock that is in need of repair and refurbishment and that is in danger of becoming derelict and vacant?
Mr. Steen:
I am not against that at all. The Bill refers to land and buildings, so it may include such buildings in a wider definition. I want every local urban authority to feel responsible and motivated to create new vitality in towns and cities by identifying vacant land and buildings and by allowing community pressure to do something about that. A central Government register on the internet is remote and impersonal and can do very little to put pressure on the owners of land or buildings so that they
Sir Nicholas Lyell:
As my hon. Friend knows, I strongly support the concept behind the Bill. On the question asked by the hon. Member for Harrow, West (Mr. Thomas), does my hon. Friend recall that, from the mid-1970s and onwards, Lambeth borough council had what it used to call "housing action areas". They were large areas of semi-derelict housing on which Lambeth council took no action, but which would have been identified under the proposals in this Bill?
Mr. Steen:
I agree entirely with my right hon. and learned Friend. Many initiatives have been taken and good work has been done. However, more needs to be done and that is what the Bill is about. I do not believe that PPG3 will change attitudes or take the debate or action forward.
Mr. James Paice (South-East Cambridgeshire):
I apologise to my hon. Friend for missing the first few minutes of his speech.
Mr. Steen:
It was the best bit.
Mr. Paice:
I am sorry that I missed the best bit.
I wholly support my hon. Friend's motives and objectives, but I want to challenge him because, several times, he has used the phrase "community pressure" as the means to encourage the owners of derelict land to develop it. Does he think that that is enough, or do we have to find a carrot to try to encourage development by some fiscal measure, such as a transferable development voucher to be used for urban areas rather than greenfield sites?
Mr. Steen:
That is absolutely right. A number of measures are needed. A local annual audit, which is attractively produced and available for 25p in every newsagent and service station, is a start. We must have incentives: there must be a carrot for those who want to develop in urban areas and a stick for those who want to build on greenfield sites. It is criminal that we allow so many more acres of land to go under concrete when we know that there is empty land that could be filled and 750,000 houses are empty.
Mr. Maclean:
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way because I know that he wants to make progress. One point concerns me about clause 2. If he is to publish a readily available guide in every locality of every vacant and under-utilised building, will he not in effect be publishing a squatters' good hotel guide, with all the dangers that that implies?
Mr. Steen:
That is an interesting question. I do not have an answer to it, but with the Government's help when we get the Bill into Committee, I am sure that we can find a way round it. However, we do not want to throw the baby out with the bath water, because the Bill has a lot to commend it, as my right hon. Friend knows.
I turn now to the countryside. My aim is the same as that of PPG3. I can see the Minister already mouthing the words, "We don't need this Bill. We have it all in PPG3."
She is wrong because, as I have explained, PPG3 is wishful thinking and moonshine. It does nothing other than express sentiment.
Mr. Paul Stinchcombe (Wellingborough):
The hon. Gentleman will be aware, because he is experienced in these matters, that under section 54 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, every planning application has to be determined in accordance with the local plan and other material considerations, of which PPG3 will be one of the most significant. It is not just wishful thinking; it is policy guidance that will shape the determination of every planning application.
Mr. Steen:
That is an interesting point, and I want to deal with it. Every local authority, with the help of the community, will produce local plans and draw rings round villages and towns for development land. They will try to satisfy the demand for the number of new houses and industrial buildings. PPG3 will be a factor in determining whether land should be developed, but if a greenfield site is in the local plan and designated for housing development, how will a planning authority say no to development on that site because it knows that there is brownfield land a few miles away?
Mr. Stinchcombe:
The hon. Gentleman will appreciate also that PPG3 gives express guidance to local planning authorities as they draw up their plans, so it has an effect then as well.
Mr. Steen:
I am grateful for this debate. When authorities draw up their plans, they must provide enough land for the housing requirement in that district. For example, my district council, South Hams, must provide enough land for 12,000 homes. It must draw round villages, hamlets, new towns and, obviously, brownfield sites. There will not be enough brownfield land to accommodate all those households. That is true of Torbay, which is also part of my local authority area. Probably between 30 and 40 per cent. of the housing requirement in the South Hams and Torbay will be met by brownfield sites, but the rest will have to be met by greenfield sites. The local plan will be therefore be partly brownfield, but mostly greenfield.
If a developer comes along in the first year of the plan and says that he wants to develop greenfield sites, will the planning authority be able to say that it will not give permission for greenfield site development until the brownfield land has been filled up, and would that decision be upheld on appeal? PPG3 is silent on that.
Mr. Soames:
In this splendid Bill, my hon. Friend deals with a matter of cardinal importance, particularly to constituencies in south-east England. Is he aware that in West Sussex there is hardly any brownfield land at all? Although I know that it is a matter of interpretation, I think that PPG3 causes the job to be done better and is a good rather than a bad thing. However, can he suggest how, through the Bill, PPG3 can be made flesh by planners in an area where there simply is no brownfield land, without them resorting immediately to massive development on greenfield sites?
Mr. Steen:
It cannot. My concern is that the requirement for nearly 1 million new houses in the
Dr. Whitehead:
The hon. Gentleman's suggestion is most interesting but unfortunately is nowhere contained in his Bill, which simply refers to local planning authorities being subject to certain requirements in their own patch.
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