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Lord Rooker moved Amendments Nos. 24 to 27:
- Page 23, line 5, after "unsatisfactory" insert "—
On Question, amendments agreed to.
Clause 42 [Statement of development principles]:
Baroness Hamwee moved Amendment No. 28:
The noble Baroness said: My Lords, Amendment No. 28 seeks to amend Clause 42, which provides for a new section after Section 61D of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. It is grouped with the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Hanham, which seeks to remove the clause altogether.
The clause concerns statements of development principle which, in our eyes, go hand in hand with how the Government intend to deal with outline planning permission. I am glad to see that the Government are not now proposing to use this Bill to give themselves the option of repealing outline planning permissions. However, we remain concerned that this part, along with other elements in the Bill, despite the time that the Bill has taken to chunter through its parliamentary progress, has still not been adequately developed—I intend no pun in that.
I turn to my amendment. The Minister has said that, as a matter of common sense, when a local planning authority is asked by a prospective developer to supply a statement of development principles it would, if it did not have enough information, ask for it. But that is not the end of the story because, as the clause is drafted, the local planning authority "must issue a statement". In our view, the local planning authority must be able to say, "We are not saying 'yes' or 'no' because you have not told us enough". Further, the local planning authority must be able to say, "Give us the information so that we can deal sensibly with the matter".
The authority may not want to say "no" to a development on the site. All noble Lords can envisage the problems that that could give rise to in the complex and technical world of town and country planning. It must be able to require the information.
The Minister said on Report that the Government were still considering the matter. He stated:
We support making outline permissions more useful, more precise, more able to achieve certainty for everyone, without allowing the outline permission to be morphed or distorted into something that was not originally anticipated by the planning authority. So, all power to the Government's elbow, let them get on with that and produce a solution—but not this solution; not statements of development principles and alternatives.
We are concerned about the workload this will cause for local planning authorities; we know the strains under which planning departments work. And for what? Not to produce anything that a developer can take to a bank and say, "Please will you finance this?" It is not a fundable permission; it is only a statement. If the Government had changed the "must" issue a statement to "may" issue a statement, I would have had more sympathy in considering whether the idea is a useful one.
It is clear from the Barker review that we shall have to come back very soon to many of the issues surrounding planning and the achievement of sustainable developments and sustainable communities. As the Government now concede that they are not going to use the Bill as an opportunity, to be exercised at some time in the future, to repeal outline planning consents and take them off the agenda, they will have to return to Parliament to deal with that matter. Both issues should be brought back together.
My short amendment seeks to make this a more workable provision. However, I would prefer to see the back of the idea, for the time being at any rate, until we have a proper and complete package together. I beg to move.
Lord Hanningfield: My Lords, I wish to speak to my Amendment No. 29, which is grouped with Amendment No. 28.
Amendment No. 29 seeks to remove Clause 42 from the Bill and thus the Government's provisions for statements of development principles. I wish to add to the comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, with which I agree. Clearly the amendment would represent a significant change to the Bill. Nevertheless, we feel that it is crucial, for the fundamental reason that it will make the legislation better.
I should like to say a little about our previous debates before I outline our opposition to statements of development principles because it may help explain why we now seek to remove Clause 42. On previous occasions, in Committee and on Report, when we tabled amendments concerning statements of development principles I expected there to be some debate and discussion. More importantly, I thought that the Government would take those opportunities to elucidate the reasoning behind statements of development principles. I did not expect necessarily a compelling justification, but certainly I expected more in the way of how statements of development principles were envisaged as improving the planning system.
I am disappointed that the Government did not really engage with the basic questions of how and why statements of development principles would add value to the planning system. To some extent, that may have been due to the way in which my previous amendments addressed the specific problems we saw in the detail of Clause 42. However, one usually expects clarity and justification to flow from the general discussion that follows. This did not happen. That means that we are left to choose between getting rid of statements of development principles altogether, or leaving them as they are.
Let me explain why I think we must remove Clause 42. As I said at Report, statements of development principles are an exercise in ivory-tower thinking. For the planners on the ground and organisations such as CPRE there is no evidence that statements of development principles will help meet the Government's objectives for the planning system. There is very little support for them, partly because there is precious little information available that justifies their introduction.
On top of all the structural changes that will flow from this Bill, we have an anomalous new process which developers and planners alike do not understand and do not support. Anyone can apply for a statement of planning principles, although no one has any idea how many applications there will be. There is considerable scope for them to be exploited as spoiling tactics for legitimate development, which I am sure the Government do not want to happen. There is even more scope for them to clog up the system, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said by overburdening planning departments' work loads, because statements of development principles will effectively subsidise the applicant's preparatory work with no discernible benefit for the local planning authority or the public.
These negative features are compounded by the fact that the Government have not decided a way forward on the retention of outline planning permission, as the noble Baroness, Lady Hamwee, said. We think that the statements of development principles cannot be considered in isolation from the future of outline planning permission. We have the Statement by the planning Minister, Keith Hill, on 15 December, 2003 which helps a little, but I do not think that primary legislation on statements of development principles is appropriate when so much related work remains outstanding.
As I said before, the Government should have listened earlier to those who actually use and manage the outline planning provision process in order to improve the level of information and community involvement in that process. Outline planning permission is key to securing funding for development. Statements of development principles, when they seem so unworkable, cannot replace outline planning permission. If they have to run in parallel, why add more bureaucracy to the system? It certainly will not help speed up the planning process.
If we introduce statements of development principles, we will shift the burden of planning applications from the applicant to the local authority at a time of severe staffing problems and in times of great operational and structural change. It seems that they can be issued on the basis of very little information to anyone who wants them. As I said before, they could be used to hold up development against the wishes of the Government. The Government can help improve the pre-application process of the planning system, but they should start by dropping statements of development principles. Planners, developers and other interested organisations do not support their introduction, and they have the potential to be an expensive and confusing failure. They are no way forward. I beg to move.
(a)"
Page 23, line 7, at end insert—
"(b) if it gives such a direction it must state its reasons for doing so.".
Page 23, line 13, after "authority" insert "—
(a)"
Page 23, line 14, at end insert—
"(b) must, if it revokes a local development order, state its reasons for doing so."
Page 25, line 16, at end insert—
"( ) whether sufficient information has been provided by the applicant to enable a decision to be made;"
"Some work remains to be done on the nature of the information that would need to be provided with applications for outline planning permission. The Government still need to be satisfied that the information will meet our objectives".—[Official Report, 1/3/04; col. 513.]
He ends by saying that he hopes to "comment further soon". The Minister went on to tell the House that discussions with "interested parties" were continuing. I hope that the Minister can tell us what progress has been made and who are the interested parties involved.
5.30 p.m.
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