Localism Bill

My Lords, I shall speak also to Amendments 147FD to 147FF, which are grouped. We had a good debate at the very beginning of Committee about sustainable development. We are now back to where many people may think that we ought to be, which is planning and the planning system. This is a serious attempt to strengthen the commitment to sustainable development in the planning system at all levels and to probe the definition of sustainable development and whether we can get a definition in the Bill, which some of us have tried with quite a number of Bills over the years. This is turning out perhaps to be one of the really important flashpoints as far as this Bill is concerned—certainly one of the key issues that is facing your Lordships as it goes through this Committee and then through the House. I do not think this discussion today will be the last we see of it. The amendments do several things. The first amendment, as set out, is headed, ““The purpose of planning”” and states very clearly: "““The purpose of the planning system is to achieve sustainable development””." It does that by amending the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004. Then it defines sustainable development as set out in one of the traditional definitions. One of the purposes of tabling these amendments is to probe whether the Government will tell us any more about whether they are trying to or intend to change that definition, and in what way. They may tell us to wait for the draft of the national planning policy framework, which we are promised we will have before Report. However, these are matters where we are going to continue prodding. The second amendment changes the sustainable development duty under the same Act to make it stronger and absolutely clear that the duty would be to ““further”” sustainable development, rather than ““contribute to”” it, as it is currently set out in the Act. Noble Lords who were around when we discussed that Act will remember we had a lot of discussion about that and tried to get it changed to ““further”” sustainable development; we tried again in 2008 with the Marine and Coastal Access Bill as it went through the House and we are trying again now. At the moment the Act says there is a duty to contribute to sustainable development. These amendments increase the numbers of specific instances where that has to happen and list all the main planning legislation over the years—this Bill, the Planning Act 2008, the Planning and Energy Act 2008, the 2004 Act and the parent Act, the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. They also add specific duties in relation to neighbourhood development plans, development control, local development orders and the neighbourhood development orders that are being introduced by this Bill and by the community right-to-build orders. I think we will come back to those as there are some amendments from the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, when we actually get to discussing neighbourhood development orders and so on, which try to make it specific in those cases, again with the same definition. The third amendment amends the Planning Act 2008 in a similar way. All these amendments change ““contributing to”” sustainable development to the much stronger ““furthering”” sustainable development. The final amendment is about sustainability appraisals in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 and the preparation of local development documents, which go into what people have got used to calling the local development framework since the 2004 Act and which the present Government are encouraging us to call the local plan again, which seems to be a better way to describe it. If we never have to talk about local development frameworks again, I would be very happy, and we can talk about the local plan, of which by and large people have some understanding. Section 19(2) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act says: "““In preparing a local development document the local planning authority must have regard to””," and we want to add, "““the findings of the sustainability appraisal required under subsection (5)." We also want to add that the local planning authority must, "““proceed with the proposals in each development plan document only if it considers that the results of the appraisal indicate that it is appropriate to do so””." In other words, there has to be a very clear and overt sustainable development check on each of the documents. Furthermore, the question of whether the authority has complied with that duty is a central part of the independent examination. This issue has become rather topical. An article in the Times purported to leak the draft national planning policy framework. I have no idea whether it was accurate. When I have asked people about it, they have said, ““Don’t believe everything you read in the papers””, to which I have responded that it has been a very long time since I stopped believing everything I read in the papers. Nevertheless, the matter is topical. It is being discussed partly because of the conflicting messages that have come from different members of the Government at different times. There are two main issues that, at the very least, we have to get to the bottom of, understand and, I hope, get an acceptable resolution to before the Bill leaves this House. First, will the Government at long last be persuaded to put sustainable development, as well as a definition of it, firmly in the Bill, and what will that definition be? People who, like me, have been arguing for a firm definition all these years might not be very pleased if the Government say, ““Yes, we’ll put it in””, and then we do not like the definition. Perhaps that would be even worse. Secondly, will it be the traditional kind of statement that balances sustainable economic development, sustainable environmental development and sustainable social development, and what will the balance be, or will there be a very different presumption for development, which might be called sustainable development but is basically economic sustainability? If there is an environmental or social spin-off, that is fine, but at the core will be economic growth. It would be foolish for any of us to be against economic growth but that clearly has to be balanced with environmental and social improvements. One might say that there needs to be economic growth, environmental growth and social growth. It is easy to pigeonhole this issue as a simple choice between pure economic growth and a more balanced sustainable approach. However, it is not quite as simple as that because individual decisions have to be made which tilt the balance one way or another. What matters are the overall mix and the overall result. Nevertheless, are we looking for pure economic growth as sustainability or for a synthesis and a balance of economic growth, social progress and environmental sustainability and improvement? I have said that about three times in different ways but it seems to be absolutely fundamental to where we are going with the Bill. We are not going to resolve this matter today—not least because we are not going to get the draft national planning policy framework. We have had a semi-unofficial version of it but none of us quite understands whether it is right or not. We have articles in the Times saying that the Government are going to unleash massive building all over the green belt and that the five-year supply of housing is going to be the only thing that matters in local plans. This is probably an exaggeration, at the very least. Nevertheless it is very worrying. If a positive planning system—that is the wording in the draft NPPF, which we will see when we get it—is to be brought in, it will mean that the Government expect the planning system to encourage growth proactively to meet the needs of business. If that is predominantly what it says, then that is a very substantial shift and one that, at the very least, this House will want to scrutinise very closely and about which it might be very concerned. I beg to move.