House of Commons - Communities and Local Government Committee

Select Committee on Communities and Local Government Committee Third Report

6 Future policy

37. This final section of our Report is intended to highlight some general areas of DCLG policy discussed during the inquiry into the 2006 Annual Report.

Climate change

38. Housing is a major contributor to CO² emissions, giving the DCLG a clear responsibility for tackling climate change through its sustainable communities strategy. The Annual Report states that the Department "made significant progress" on climate change policy, launching new building regulations and the voluntary Code for Sustainable Homes, and assisting DEFRA in setting up a best practice fund to help local authorities engage with climate change issues.[46]

39. At her introductory hearing with us in July 2006, the Secretary of State said that the Department was preparing a new planning policy statement on climate change, but did not directly answer whether the Department would sign up to the Government's PSA on climate change.[47] In oral evidence to this inquiry, however, she told us both the Department and the Government "clearly have to come to an agreement […] as to how best to build climate change into those PSAs".[48] A week earlier, the Director-General, Corporate Delivery, Mr Unwin, had told us: "Ministers are very focused on [climate change] and see Communities and Local Government as having a key role, probably one of the most important roles across government, in terms of pursuing action against climate change and in favour of sustainable development".[49] The Secretary of State argued that a PSA would not, in itself, "fundamentally change approaches" to the climate change agenda, but might provide a "realistic reflection" of what the Department was doing.[50] The Department has since begun consultation on a new draft Planning Policy Statement on "Planning and Climate Change", which sets out how "planning, in providing for the new homes, jobs and infrastructure needed by communities, should help shape places with lower carbon emissions and resilient to the climate change now accepted as inevitable".[51] The consultation is due to end on 8 March.

40. We welcome the Secretary of State's desire to establish the DCLG as a lead Department in governmental climate change policy.

Home Information Packs

41. The Annual Report identifies Home Information Packs (HIPs) as one of the Department's "key priorities" in 2005-06.[52] Regulations setting out what the packs must contain were laid before Parliament in June 2006, and the packs are scheduled to become mandatory from 1 June 2007. Everyone selling a home in England and Wales will need to prepare a HIP, including an energy performance certificate, evidence of searches and legal documents. The Government's case, broadly, is that HIPs will save buyers, and sellers, time and money by collating information relevant to a house sale in a single pack. The Secretary of State told us that the underlying principle behind their introduction was to "maximise benefits for consumers", by which she meant both buyers and sellers.[53]

42. There will be no mandatory requirement, however, to include a home condition report in the HIPs. The Government announced on 18 July 2006 that the expected mandatory requirement had been downgraded to a voluntary one. The Secretary of State told us that this decision had resulted from new information from the Council of Mortgage Lenders which made it clear that "a significant majority of mortgage lenders would not have automatic valuation models in place until 2008-09".[54] She hoped, however, that individual sellers would still wish to include a home condition report voluntarily and that reports for sellers would ultimately become a standard part of the homebuying process:

"I am convinced that the market is changing in such a way that consumers will want this, the buyers will want this, the sellers will want a home condition report and in fact it will be in the interest of estate agents ultimately as well because the nature of the market is changing".[55]

43. A dry-run testing implementation of the packs is currently under way and will continue until June 2007.[56] There are key differences however between the dry-run trials and the full-scale roll-out: not all documents that will be required in the mandatory HIP after July need to be included during the trial runs. The Secretary of State said the trials will allow the Department to measure the consumer benefits of the packs and how popular they are.[57] The first report back on the trials was expected in February.

44. We note the Secretary of State's argument that home condition reports could not be included as mandatory in Home Information Packs when they are launched in June 2007 because not enough mortgage lenders would have automated valuation systems in place. We note also her view that the packs are ultimately likely to include home condition reports as a result of the changing housebuying market.

Fire Service co-responding

45. During our inquiry into the Fire and Rescue Service we were impressed by co-response schemes involving the emergency services. Under such schemes, whichever service arrives first at an emergency undertakes whatever tasks are required, whether or not those tasks fall within their normal roles. For example, firefighters arriving first might give basic medical assistance, or paramedics arriving first might undertake basic rescue operations. We recommended that the Government should develop a national co-response protocol, including guidance on payment for the service.[58] In its Response, the Government said that it, too, fully supported co-response schemes and would wish all fire and rescue authorities to work with local ambulance trusts to introduce them where locally appropriate.[59]

46. In late October 2006, however, a High Court judge ruled in favour of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) against Lincolnshire Council and Nottingham's fire authority, saying that medical treatment was not part of firefighters' normal duties and that they could not therefore be required to take part in co-response schemes. This, of course, means that locally agreed schemes are still possible, although the judgement met the FBU's concern that medical response, in some cases, goes beyond firefighters' contractual obligations.

47. The Secretary of State told us that the Government "certainly continue to support co-responder schemes and I am convinced that co-responding can save lives".[60] She did not expect the High Court judgement to affect existing schemes and said the Government would continue to work with the Fire Service and others so that voluntary schemes could continue to be taken forward—"[…] co-responding saves lives and should be available to everyone right across the country".[61] We endorse the Secretary of State's view that emergency service co-response schemes can save lives and should be encouraged. We urge the Government to be active in negotiating the creation and continued success of such schemes. We reiterate our earlier recommendation that the Government introduce a national co-response protocol, including guidance on payment for the service.

Equalities policy and community cohesion

48. As already noted, the machinery of government changes that created the Department for Communities and Local Government also resulted in an extended departmental remit encompassing the Government's equalities policies. In particular, the Department's responsibilities have been extended into the areas of gender, race and faith equalities. As with the examples given in the section of this Report on Delivery, policy in these areas frequently cuts across the work of several Government Departments, and as the Department with lead responsibility the DCLG once again needs to ensure that mechanisms are in place to guarantee that its lead is clear and firm and that it receives an adequate response from the other Departments concerned.

49. The ODPM already had an Equality and Diversity Unit in place and had published its own Race Equality Scheme for 2005-08 setting out how it intended to comply with its general duty under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 to promote race equality.[62] The Department also has a long-term target for gender equality of 50% of public appointments being made to women. The current target is 38% and performance 34%, both of which the Department says compare favourably across Whitehall.[63] A new Director-General, Equalities was due to join the Department on 29 January, filling a post vacant since the departmental reorganisation, and among the first of her tasks will be establishing the DCLG's leading cross-governmental role on the introduction of a gender equality duty to match the existing race equality duty.[64] The Secretary of State acknowledged as much on 4 December in saying, "We are certainly trying to beef up our equalities team because equality […] should be something which influences the whole way that the department thinks and operates".[65] She also noted the Department's particular need to work with the Home Office, from which it inherited large sections of its new responsibilities.[66]

50. The Secretary of State herself also highlighted the work of two bodies in the coming year: the Commission for Equalities and Human Rights (CEHR) and the Commission on Integration and Cohesion (CIC). Both will require some departmental staff reorganisation, including extensions of expertise in their areas of operation, and responses to their work.[67]

51. The CEHR will bring together the work formerly done by the Campaign for Racial Equality (CRE), the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission. It is to be headed by Trevor Phillips, former head of the CRE. The Secretary of State told us that she meets Mr Phillips regularly, but that precise mechanisms for overseeing the CEHR would be "made clear in due course".[68]

52. The CIC was set up by the DCLG in June 2006 to investigate the benefits and tensions of diversity. It is headed by Darra Singh, Chief Executive of Ealing Borough Council, whom we met informally in November 2006. It is due to report fully in July 2007, with an interim report expected in the Spring. The Secretary of State said that the CIC was independent and had been set up "precisely to identify what practical actions make a difference to communities getting on well".[69]

53. The DCLG's new responsibilities for communities, race, faith and equalities pose substantial new challenges to the Department. In particular, the Department needs to establish a leading role across government on the new gender equality duty. It also needs to establish a clear working relationship with the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. We welcome its appointment of the independent Commission on Integration and Cohesion and look forward to seeing how it responds to that Commission's interim and final reports later this year.

46 DCLG Annual Report 2006, p 21 Back

47 Minutes of Evidence, 12 July 2006, Qq 14 to 16. See http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmcomloc/1524/6071201.htm Back

48 Q147 Back

49 Q103 Back

50 QQ148, 149 Back

51 DCLG,Planning Policy Statement: Planning and Climate Change, supplement to planning policy statement 1, p 2. See DCLG Website: http://www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1505140 Back

52 DCLG Annual Report 2006, p 30 Back

53 QQ124, 126, 132 Back

54 Q123 Back

55 Q129 Back

56 Q124 Back

57 Q129 Back