My Lords, before I launch into my new clause, I am sure that the whole House will have noticed that we are missing the congenial figure of the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy of Southwark, on our Front Benches. I am sure that the other Front Benches would like to join us in sending him every best wish for a speedy recovery. He was taken ill last night.
Before we move on to dissect the planning Bill in all its glory, I am proposing a new clause, which I hope will bring great spirit and a brighter vision for the Minister about what planning can achieve. The new clause also draws on the recent report of the National Policy for the Built Environment Committee. We have just heard an interesting discussion on the role of the committee and the report was an excellent example of
a very thoughtful appreciation of a very complex topic. Our findings, which are based on extensive evidence of how, with the talent and vision we already have among our planners, architects and engineers, we can make better places for the future. That is reflected in my new clause, which sets out the terms of what is possible, with the need to reassert the fundamental and public purpose of planning itself—something that I am afraid we have lost sight of.
Planning is about making places and shaping the future of communities. Therefore, it has a profound impact on our lives in many different ways. Obviously, it includes housebuilding, but it is not exclusively about that; it can determine whether communities thrive or not and whether the future is safe, whether it is healthy or harmful and whether that community is productive or idle. Of all the public services that we have, it is the longest term. The proposed new clause would put in the Bill a positive statement of the public purposes and benefit of planning.
In 1947, the Town and Country Planning Act took its place alongside the National Health Service Act, the Education Act and the National Insurance Act as the foundation of what was intended to be a new, prosperous and socially just society. Without the 1947 Act, London and Brighton would have converged into a huge, ghastly conglomerate. Somewhat immodestly, I suggest that my new clause is in that tradition. What is significant about it—it is unique in my experience—is that it is supported by a host of organisations which look after different aspects of community interest, such as Age Concern, Friends of the Earth, TCPA and Aspire. These organisations know what a difference a good place can make; they share the concerns on this side of the House that the changes in this part of the Bill will make high-quality, accessible, sustainable outcomes more difficult to achieve in the anticipated new developments.
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This amendment specifies what planning authorities need to plan for if they are going to make the best use of land and resources. First, we have the three indivisible elements of sustainability: economic, social and environmental. We need to plan for clear outcomes for health and well-being, for provision for economic development and mitigation of climate change, given the current fragility of the future. Noble Lords may know of the Foresight land use futures project which reported some years ago and concluded that the potential role of land and land use in climate change mitigation and adaptation would be profound. The move to a low-carbon economy will increasingly influence land-use decisions, settlement patterns, the design of urban environments and the choices on transport infrastructure. I wish I thought that the Bill before us had anything like the grip on those issues and the foresight and ambition of that report.
This amendment—and I say this boldly—anticipates happiness too, because happiness and resourcefulness go together. It recognises that the best places to live are those which understand how arts, heritage and culture enrich our lives and create a sense of belonging and identity. It also speaks for the need for rich habitats and green space, all of which are represented
by a paramount emphasis on quality and design. This will create inclusive and resilient communities that will thrive in the future. It will design in health and safety. In short, it offers a prescription for the sort of communities we would all choose to live in. The tragedy is that none of this is even hinted at in this Bill and yet it is not some utopian vision which is and should remain out of reach; it is a practical, cost-effective and eminently far-sighted proposition because it will pay for itself and save lives. Instead we have in this Bill an attempt to wrench the planning system towards a particular, limited and short-term purpose. It is driven by Treasury principles and underwritten by the constant accusation that the current planning system is too slow and expensive and has failed to deliver, especially when it comes to building houses.
If the Minister reads the report of the Select Committee on the built environment, she will see that the evidence we received from the people who build houses makes it clear that while the planning system definitely can be improved, the consistent failures impacting on housebuilding have been the lack of finance, the lack of skills and the dead hand of land banking. This new clause reasserts a holistic view which is fundamentally at odds with what this Bill proposes, which is a fragmentation of the planning system—three new routes to achieve the new status of permission in principle—and a perverse separation of the key elements of any development—location, land use and amount of development—from everything in the technical details section which makes up the look, feel, sustainability and quality of a place and the prospects for its community.
Once again we are in murky waters in this Bill, with instances of definitions and delivery waiting on regulations which we will not see and which it will be beyond our reach to change, and a consultation on how the process is going to work running parallel with our deliberations and not available to us. This is unacceptable.
The Bill is supposed to create greater certainty and speed. I wish I could believe that it will, because that is certainly what housebuilders, developers and homebuyers want, but I am afraid that the Bill and the technical consultation are so complex and so riddled with uncertainties and ambiguities of language, meaning and policy that I simply cannot see it happening.
I am offering the Minister an alternative. If we can put on the face of the Bill this ambitious statement of what planning should be about and the sorts of communities we want to see, we would send a strong signal and a challenge to the planning community that we know what it is capable of and what we have a right to expect from it. The Select Committee was adamant on this point. As a nation, our aspirations for the quality of the built environment have been routinely too low. Only the Government can set a more ambitious path and we urge them to do so. The Minister could make a great start by accepting this modest amendment. I beg to move.