My Lords, I, too, support this amendment. In doing so, I declare two interests, one of which I have already declared—namely, that I am a practising chartered surveyor. As a matter of course in my work, I advise owners of land with potential development sites, some of them on the edges of rural villages. I also declare my now past status as a former president of the National Association of Local Councils, which strongly supports this amendment.
It seems an entirely incontestable proposition that a neighbourhood plan duly made—and therefore a robust representation of locally expressed views in accordance with the local plan—and which is a true reflection of national policy and the government agenda through that local plan process, should be defendable in the event of the circumstances arising set out in this amendment: namely, the very limited circumstances in which the principal authority does not itself wish to pursue this, in which case the neighbourhood can deal with the matter itself. If the contrary view is to prevail, what is the point of having a process of neighbourhood
plan and devolving responsibilities if the neighbourhood cannot take advantage of such a facility—the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Shipley?
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On that basis, I support the amendment. It is, as I said, strongly supported by the National Association of Local Councils, which is the parent body of parish and town councils. My only slight reservation, which I have explained to the noble Baroness, Lady Parminter, is the definition of “emerging”, as set out in the amendment. It is technically possible—although I understand that it has not been the experience to date in the work done by NALC or within the department itself—for a relatively ill-formulated or poorly community-canvassed neighbourhood plan process to be “emerging”, to use that term of art.
I would tend to the view that the examination part of the test of emergence should already have taken place and the neighbourhood plan should have been found to be sound by that independent examiner. However, I am reassured on the potential for misuse by two other factors, namely that the risks consequential on the independent examiner rejecting a poor neighbourhood plan are significant and, furthermore, that the costs likely to be visited on the neighbourhood through making an appeal are matters that should be carefully considered beforehand. I am entirely unclear as to exactly how those costs end up being funded; that is something for another day. In addition, the possible extra costs in the event of a developer not only winning an appeal because of the neighbourhood plan’s lack of robustness but successfully then claiming its own costs as part of such an appeal should be an extremely sobering thought for any neighbourhood or parish wishing to embark on this process.
The Government should not seek to micromanage the neighbourhood plan process. As we have heard already, there needs to be proper motivation for it to succeed but, at the same time, the risks should be understood and shouldered, otherwise we will not have robust and correctly formulated neighbourhood plans. That after all is key, but the risks are real. It is a commonly held belief among developers of my acquaintance that, in terms of the volume ultimately and collectively created to meet the Government’s targets on new housing rollout, a suite of smaller sites in villages and town fringes may be preferable to the larger strategic sites, which have an infrastructure threshold cost and potentially constrained build-out rates. By “constrained build-out rates”, I mean that a large quantity of housing coming from one particular strategic site ultimately risks flooding its immediate local market as, by dint of economic and market circumstances, the build-out rates are essentially constrained. The belief is that having a much broader suite of different developers, different styles of property and different locations is key to the bulk rolling-out of the Government’s housing targets.
If the noble Baroness decides to test the opinion of the House, I shall vote with her, but I hope that the noble Baroness, Lady Evans—or perhaps the noble Baroness, Lady Williams, herself—might comment on my reservations about precisely how the question of emerging neighbourhood plans will be dealt with.