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Baroness Maddock: My Lords, I rise briefly to support the noble Baroness, Lady Wilkins. She has explained precisely why we need the amendment. If we are serious about sustainability and good design, the amendment fits into that. At a meeting this week I was somewhat surprised by someone, who I thought should know better, who thought that good design was simply about what things looked like. It is not. The amendment is part of good design and I hope that the Minister will be helpful. I fully support the noble Baroness.
Lord Rooker: My Lords, I hope that I can say something helpful, because we are very sympathetic to what is behind the amendment. However, I cannot be helpful in the sense that I can accept it.
The amendment is discretionary, not mandatory. Local authorities already have a discretion to introduce planning policies within the national policy framework, provided that they can be justified and relate to the use and development of land, because that is how the system works. The amendment states what can already happen. Therefore, we believe that we do not need to amend the Bill.
On the other hand, I am very grateful for what the noble Baroness said about the announcement by my honourable friend in the other place, Phil Hope, on 10 March. I understand that groups such as the Disability Rights Commission have welcomed the announcement in respect of the building regulations. My honourable friend made clear our commitment to ensuring that the building regulations encourage accessibility and design features that make the home sufficiently flexible to meet the changing needs of a family. In other words, as the noble Baroness, Lady Maddock, said, it is not just about looking nice but also about practicalities. Of course, we shall consult on possible amendments in due course.
It is envisaged that new standards could be in place in two years. I have to say—I do not want to mislead people— that that is very speedy. My experience of changing building regulations is not good. It takes a while. On the other hand, the noble Baroness is quite right that people have waited long enough for new standards. We in this country fall miles behind the standard of housing that was built and designed for people with disabilities in Sweden in the mid-1980s, and I suspect that we shall not achieve anything like that standard that I saw almost 20 years ago. We have much to overcome, partly because we do not replace our stock at anything like the rate of our continental partners.
They replace their stock at a rate of about 1 per cent per year; we replace ours at a rate of about 0.1 per cent per year, although there have been opportunities for us to do so.With regard to the London plan, the Government Office is in dialogue with the Mayor about the implementation of the Mayor's policy. Some points need to be cleared up. The Government Office has drawn the Mayor's attention to the draft planning policy statement 1, the review of the building regulations, which I have already mentioned, and has pointed out that the Mayor's policy would need to be reviewed and revised in the light of the new building standards.
In principle, local plan policies can include provisions for a proportion of accessible homes, provided that they are justified by need. However, any specific standards for accessibility should not cut across the building regulations. Local authorities already have an enormous amount of discretion. If the will is there, it is very easy for them to identify the need, which then conforms with the overall policies. The fact that we have given it a push, by a review of the regulations as well, is no excuse for them not to do anything in the intervening period where there is an identified need.
I regret that I cannot be more positive on this. However, I can assure the House that I shall be much more positive on the amendments to be tabled by the noble Baroness later today.
Baroness Wilkins: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his encouragement and beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 39 [Sustainable development]:
Lord Rooker moved Amendment No. 20:
- Page 21, line 26, leave out "a view to" and insert "the objective of"
The noble Lord said: My Lords, I undertook to look further at the issue of the application particularly of Clause 39(2).
At Report, the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said:
- "I would like to think that every objective is automatically achieved but I do not believe that that is the case in life . . . I make sustainable development the objective with the hope, though not necessarily the confidence, that by doing so it will always be achieved".—[Official Report, 1/3/04; col. 482.]
As I have previously explained, the original drafting of the clause, with a view to contributing to the achievement of sustainable development, sought to avoid placing too great a weight on regional planning bodies and local authorities by recognising that the plan-making system cannot alone be held responsible for sustainable development. It is one of a number of factors or actions that bear on sustainable development.
I hope that the noble Baroness will agree that this amendment is a sensible compromise. Contributing to the achievement of sustainable development is a clear objective for regional planning bodies and local authorities in their regional spatial strategies and local developments, but it does not open up every planning policy to challenge. That is crucial. I remember saying that as long ago as Second Reading.
We have always looked at and been careful about the kind of amendments we could table. We wanted to be positive—no one will claim that we have the perfect wording in the Bill—but I said that opening up the issue was fraught with danger. I hope that the Government's amendment will be accepted. It is almost in lieu of Amendment No. 21. I beg to move.
5 p.m.
Baroness Hamwee: My Lords, my Amendment No. 21 is grouped with the government amendment. I did a dangerous thing last night by looking up the definition of "objective" in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. It was dangerous because I was diverted and spent a lot of time on more interesting questions. It was defined in part as,
- "Expressing, designating, or referring to the object of an action . . . Sought or aimed at".
I have been discourteous because I should have started by thanking the Minister for moving down the road with the compromise he described. It is welcome. Will we now have in place the provision that the planning system must not endorse unsustainable development—or at any rate the regional spatial strategy and the local development documents? This is more than just semantics. If I had thought quickly enough, I would have asked the question before I made my other point in order to give time for thought. I am asking the Minister to confirm that the plans—the spatial strategy and the local development documents—must not directly or indirectly endorse unsustainable development.
Lord Rooker: My Lords, off the top of my head, given the weight we have put on this matter, that the clause is in the Bill and that the new strapline of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is "creating sustainable communities"—and at no cost to the taxpayer because we invented it ourselves—it is taken extremely seriously. Therefore, I would concur and expect that planning authorities and regional spatial strategies will not go around endorsing unsustainable developments.
On Question, amendment agreed to.
Lord Rogers of Riverside moved Amendment No. 22:
- Page 21, line 27, at end insert "through high quality design"
The noble Lord said: My Lords, in moving Amendment No. 22 and speaking to Amendment No. 23, I rise to add my wholehearted support for the Government in seeking to strengthen the sustainability duties on planners in Clause 39. Throughout the passage of the Bill, the Minister has listened to
arguments put forward by myself and other noble Lords that design policy and sustainable development must go hand in hand. Whenever he has had the opportunity, he has made the point himself, but the spirit of the law is quite clear. Planners must consider design as part of their objective of contributing towards achieving sustainable development. We have been assured that planning policy statement 1 will be sufficiently robust in terms of design. That is excellent news.But what about the letter of the law? Throughout your Lordships' consideration of the Bill, I have called for the word "design" to be included alongside the duty contained in Clause 39. Other noble Lords from all sides of the House have added their support, including the noble Lord, Lord Lucas, my noble friends Lady Blackstone and Lord Alli, and the noble Baroness, Lady Maddock. I am grateful for their support.
The Government have listened to our arguments carefully. They have concluded that a strengthened Clause 39—taken together with a robust planning policy statement 1—is sufficient to ensure that design is taken fully in to account in planning decisions. Later government amendments, which I shall be delighted to support, place design at the heart of the planning application process.
If we are to have sustainable development—if we are to have the urban renaissance—we must ensure quality design. High quality design is the means to that end. Either amendment would make that absolutely clear on the face of the Bill. It would send out a message loud and clear to planning authorities and developers alike.
I know that my noble friend the Minister understands this perfectly well, and I expect him to be reassuring in his response. I expect him to say that if we include design, then should we not include access and a whole range of other issues? I would argue that "high quality design" by definition means inclusive design, and therefore includes such important issues.
I urge the Government to consider the amendments. I am relaxed about which one they should accept, although on balance Amendment No. 22 is clearer, as it makes explicit the causal link between quality design and sustainable development. I beg to move.
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