I could not agree more with my right hon. Friend. The fact is that we now know so much more about the true value of green space that is lost—we can actually calculate the value of the natural capital. I set up the Natural Capital Committee, which reports to the Treasury, so that we no longer make decisions on the assumption that nature provides things for free. That is not true, because when we take away natural capital, there is a cost to our economy, so it is important that there is proper offsetting.
When the Lords Select Committee discussed the issues relating to Lords amendment 1, it was stated that there is already enough public open space in the locality. Well, I beg to differ. With a housing density of 60 units of accommodation per hectare, there is obviously great pressure on what public open space remains. We should not regard the situation as static, because from the moment the high-speed railway is built, the pressures on the parish of Bickenhill will be enormous. People are always trying to put some new development in the Meriden gap—we already have the M6, the M42, the west coast main line, Birmingham airport and the Chiltern line. We almost had the national football stadium, and we have the National Exhibition Centre. Space will be at an enormous premium, so to disregard the significance of just 4 hectares of green space is not a little matter, which I why I particularly wanted to raise it in this debate.
6.45 pm
My right hon. Friend the Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs Gillan) dubbed Lords amendment 4 the anti-land grab amendment, which I think will go down in posterity as a good description. I welcome the change it brings. This is very important for precisely the reason that I have just outlined. The effect of building the high-speed railway will be to make the land adjacent to it considerably more attractive for development. The Government were entirely right to constrain the power of HS2 to acquire more land than it necessarily needs for the construction of the railway. I commend the CLA for its very strong campaign to get the balance right on this issue.
May I just impress on the Minister the importance of this matter, particularly when one thinks about the parish of Bickenhill or indeed the wider borough of Solihull, because the local authority already has important plans to improve the connectivity to the first station outside London? There will be a 31-minute journey time from Birmingham airport to London Euston, which makes that locality very attractive for other uses. Solihull Council has come up with a proposal for a garden city that would connect to my council estate in Chelmsley Wood. For the first time in its existence, this housing estate, which was built at the same time as other garden cities, would be connected to 21st-century transport infrastructure. That would mean that people would feel included, which is important, because as one of the main aims of the new Prime Minister was to underline inclusivity. That can be achieved, but only if we strike the right balance between what HS2 takes for the purposes of building a railway and what other key stakeholders such as the local authority might need for housing or other purposes.
While the amendment is very important to my constituency, it is also very important to the airport, which is another key stakeholder in this very sought
after piece of transport infrastructure. Getting the balance right between the different players is crucial, so I impress on the Minister that using this power judiciously will be important for a sustainable outcome around the new parkway station.
Although the Transport Secretary said that the powers conferred by clause 48 would be used as only a last resort if commercial negotiations failed to reach satisfactory conclusions, the Lords Select Committee concluded that it was
“not sound law-making to create wide powers permitting the expropriation of private property on the strength of ministerial statements, not embodied in statute, that the powers would be used only as a last resort.”
Let me tell the Minister that trying to deal with compensation cases is a life-changing experience for any MP and their staff. A handful of Members are bearing a disproportionate burden of dealing with what are sometimes very complex and distressing cases, such as when the site of someone’s retirement home is required for the construction of the railway. I am concerned that we strike the right balance with this measure, because I have seen malpractice in the form of pressure being put on my constituents to concede their private properties at prices that they would certainly deem to be below some of the estimates of their true market value.
In one case, enormous pressure was put on one of my constituents to concede what he saw as a below-market price for his property, but he was not allowed to make any reference to it before appearing before the Select Committee. Such undue pressure on our constituents has been completely unreasonable. I am concerned about the conclusion that there will be sufficient powers to protect our constituents. Some of the compensation cases are still outstanding. Despite writing to the outgoing chief executive, David Higgins, in August about a particularly difficult ongoing case involving a very vulnerable constituent of mine, which he had promised to expedite, there is still no conclusion to that case in late February 2017. As we consider Lords amendment 48, we need to give some ongoing thought to the fairness of the compensation process and to where our constituents will turn in the absence of any third party to oversee that fairness.