Examination of Witnesses (Questions 140-142)
MR RYND
SMITH, MR
TONY MULHALL
AND MR
DAVID BROCK
18 MAY 2009
Q140 David Wright: And their local
development framework is not quite as up-to-date either.
Mr Brock: Yes, but firstly they
are under a duty to keep their LDF up-to-date and one of the great
things about the LDF is that of course it is hugely flexible.
You can change it in response to changing circumstances. It is
also very front-end loaded, but that is a different issue. Most
of them know that they are going to have deal with these sorts
of things from time to time. If it is not a big retail application,
it will be a big housing application. I am no expert on it, but
I would have thought that is going to even out.
Q141 David Wright: Just one more
point, because I think we are running out of time. Do you have
a feeling that a change in the system is going to result in a
large number of new applications as developers re-examine their
land banks and re-examine whether they can perhaps pursue applications
through this system more effectively than the old system?
Mr Smith: Right now, the answer
to that question is indubitably no. However, we are also looking
at circumstances in which the economic health of the nation, one
strongly hopes, will be better in six months' time and will be
further better in a year's time than it is now. There will inevitably
be, as there always are in circumstances where new policy is framed,
new approaches and new practices developed, some testing of the
parameters, so we will see some applications which are designed
to work out the degree of flex inherent in the new rules and whether
that has changed.
Q142 Chair: In which case, surely
is not now the moment to bring them in? If you brought them in
when the economy was doing brilliantly, surely loads more people
would test it out all at once?
Mr Smith: Possibly so, but then
the countervailing point is the concern, the difficulty caused
by that uncertainty, is less significant. There is an enormous
amount of work to be done within the parameter of the existing
rules untested at that point and many people will just get on
with that.
Mr Brock: The testing will occur
at the right point in the economic cycle, when people come forward,
I think, and we think there will be testing. Whether or not it
is people saying, "Well, I've got a land bank. I must go
ahead and do it this way," if you bring in a new test it
will lead to (a) uncertainty, (b) opportunity. When the last test
was brought in there were years of planning appeals challenging
in the courts to see what the thing actually meant and I do think—and
this comes back to your initial question—if one is going
to bring in a new test then the burden ought to be on the Government
to show that it is worth doing it, given the uncertainty and the
testing and the difficulties which will then come forward.
Chair: Okay. We are running overtime,
so can I thank you all very much. We need to move on, I think,
to the next witness. Thank you all. I think my colleague is suggesting
just drop us a note if there is an additional point you wanted
to make.
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