My Lords, this is my first chance to speak on the planning aspects of the Bill today, so I declare again my vice-presidency of the Local Government Association.
Like, I think, noble Lords across all parts of the House, we are strongly supportive of the concept of neighbourhood planning. We had many discussions
around it as part of the Localism Bill, and I have been deeply impressed by the commitment of so many communities to get involved in the process. This has been a success story from the last Government.
My noble friend Lord Greaves said earlier that there have been some 1,800 neighbourhood plans at some stage of development. Of course, many fewer have actually held referendums, and it is quite a task to move from initial expressions of interest through to actually having a neighbourhood plan in place. We want to encourage the process, and this group of amendments is about how we can do that.
Amendments 87 and 88 do just that, and Amendment 88B asks the Government to do a little bit more by looking at ways in which they might provide an additional contribution to the work of communities in developing their neighbourhood plans, because not having the necessary resources is clearly an impediment.
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I understand—and the Minister might comment on this—that DCLG published some figures about three months ago on neighbourhood planning delivery. Apparently, more new homes have been delivered—some 10% higher—in the first areas that had a neighbourhood plan than there would have been under the council’s own local plan. That is very strong evidence that there is something to be gained in terms of building more homes if you have a neighbourhood plan, as the community will have discussed it. It may also derive, as my noble friend Lord Greaves said, from there being a disagreement locally about housing proposals, but there is then a gain as people get together and see that their neighbourhoods might actually be improved if there were to be additional housing in the area. That is the evidence of it.
The overall point—and I hope the Minister will understand why this group of amendments is important —is that unparished areas seem to have many fewer neighbourhood plans than parished areas. Thus, this is not just an issue about encouraging neighbourhood planning; it is actually an issue about encouraging the creation of parish councils. In urban areas, there are many fewer parish councils and town councils than there are in rural areas. There are good historical reasons for that, but there is another step to take now to encourage the formation of more town councils; I have been, and am, a very strong advocate of that because it builds citizen involvement in local democracy. That, for me, is an extremely important aspect of this.
I hope that the Government will understand that these probing amendments are actually meant to enhance the process of neighbourhood planning, not to get in the way of what is, in other respects, a very good Bill in relation to neighbourhood planning.