Localism Bill

My Lords, this has been a very useful debate. I do not think that the Committee is very far apart on the essential importance of housing and making housing one of the key ingredients of the planning process. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, for the typically intelligent and sensitive way in which she introduced her Amendment 148 and led the group. The amendments that we are considering include those of the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, which seek this numerical assessment by a local authority of current and projected housing needs, the balance of affordable housing and proposals for addressing those needs in local development schemes, which are the documents setting out the programme and timetable for producing plans. Also required is the publication of annual reports of the matters reviewed and the changes proposed to implement local plans, and the publication of a review of a range of environmental, social and economic issues specified in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 prior to preparing its local plan. As I said, I do not think that we are a million miles away on the objectives. I hope that I will be able to satisfy the Committee that the provision in the Bill is adequate and will achieve what we are all seeking to do. I fully agree that local authorities should understand and plan for the differing housing needs of people of all ages in their area, including the elderly population, families with children and people in need of affordable housing. Affordable housing plays an important role in creating sustainable communities and our economy. Good quality housing for people in later life can promote health, well-being and independence and reduce the need for costly care. From what they have said, I think that almost all noble Lords would support the efficacy of extra care housing, as advocated by the noble Lord, Lord Best, in meeting a targeted need in this way. Strong strategy provisions already exist in the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, as noble Lords have said. Section 13 of the Act requires local planning authorities to keep under review matters that affect the development of their area, including the size, composition and distribution of the population in the area. This is a strong starting position from which to plan effectively for the needs of different groups of people. National planning policy in this area is well understood and accepted. We intend to strengthen policy in the review that we are undertaking. As my noble friend Lord Cathcart said, planning policy statement 3 and its associated detailed guidance on strategic housing market assessment make it clear that local authority plans should be informed by a robust evidence base of housing need and demand in its area for market and affordable housing. The noble Lord, Lord Whitty, is right: local authorities must look at housing policy in its totality—I think he used the word ““holistic””. Local authority plans should consider a range of issues including demographic trends and the accommodation requirements of specific groups, particularly families with children, older people and disabled people. Section 19 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act requires local planning authorities to have regard to national policy when preparing development plans in their area. The requirement to monitor and report annually on the implementation of their housing policy already exists in Regulation 48(7) of the 2004 regulations for local plans. Councils, "““must specify the number of dwellings built in the … area””." Regulation 48(6) makes it clear that this number is, "““net additional dwellings in any part of the area of the authority””." That is a long-standing arrangement that councils agree with and which we are not changing. However, we want to strengthen the arrangement further and already propose to include a requirement to report on affordable housing as part of our new streamlined regulations, which were placed in the House Library this week for information. We want local authorities to be held to account for their performance by their communities, and the Bill will remove top-down involvement by Government as councils will publish information direct to the public in the interests of transparency and accountability.