My Lords, Amendment 188, headed as it is by the noble Lords, Lord Crisp and Lord Young, sounds like an advertisement for a supermarket lettuce. Along with the noble Lords, Lord Blunkett and Lord Stunell, I supported the
Healthy Homes Bill of the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, on 15 July, along with many other noble Lords who all spoke in favour at Second Reading. When the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, replied to the debate, after expressing his disappointment that the Government were not supportive of his Bill, he said:
“I will take the advice of the noble Lord, Lord Young of Cookham, and look for opportunities for this in current legislation.”—[Official Report, 15/7/22; col. 1707.]
He then did what did not always happened when I was Chief Whip in another place: he followed my advice. His amendments would simply insert his Bill into this one, so today we have an opportunity to build on what was said on that occasion in July and take the debate forward.
I looked again at what the Minister said in reply to that debate:
“The Government oppose this Bill, not because they take issue with the premise of noble Lords’ arguments, but rather because they believe that the problems highlighted in the Bill are already being dealt with via alternative policy routes … Many of the proposed healthy homes principles are already covered by the National Planning Policy Framework, which sets out the Government’s planning policies for England and how these should be applied. The NPPF must be taken into account by local authorities in the preparation of their development plans, and it is a material consideration in planning decisions.”
She went on to say:
“We are intending to review the NPPF to support the programme of changes to the planning system. This will provide an opportunity to ensure that the NPPF contributes to sustainable development as fully as possible.”
So two options are available. One is to do what the amendments would do and incorporate the Healthy Homes Bill into primary legislation. The other—and I hold no negotiating brief for the noble Lord, Lord Crisp—is for the Government to undertake that the revised NPPF will incorporate the relevant commitments in Amendments 394 to 399.
Those amendments build on what is already in the NPPF. In the Minister’s own words:
“The social objective focuses on supporting strong, vibrant and healthy communities by fostering well-designed, beautiful and safe places with accessible services and open spaces. More specifically, the framework is clear that planning policies and decisions should aim to achieve healthy, inclusive and safe places. This should support healthy lifestyles, especially where this would address identified local health and well-being needs.”
The Minister went on to say:
“This means that all plans should promote sustainable patterns of growth to meet local need, align growth and infrastructure, improve the environment, mitigate climate change and adapt to its effects.”—[Official Report, 15/7/22; cols. 1702-03.]
But that is not a million miles away from what is in the noble Lord’s amendments. The Minister may want to reflect on the precise wording and have a dialogue with the noble Lord, but her objective of mitigating climate change, which I just referred to, is not a million miles from proposed new paragraph (f) in Amendment 396, that
“all new homes should secure radical reductions in carbon emissions in line with the provisions of the Climate Change Act 2008”.
If my noble friend the Minister has “resist” on the top of her speaking notes, is she prepared to discuss with the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, how his agenda can best be taken forward?
5.45 pm
I will say a brief word on Amendment 241, which is in my name and those of the noble Lords, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, Lord Stevens and Lord Foster. In 2021, the Public Services Committee, chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong of Hill Top, conducted an inquiry into levelling up. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and I sat on that inquiry. The committee emphasised in its report the need to reduce regional inequality in healthy life expectancies.
I was pleased that the Government took this forward by announcing levelling-up mission 7: that these inequalities will be reduced by 2030. However, improving an outcome as fundamental as that cannot be achieved just by instigating a target. There are measures in the Bill that will contribute directly to meeting the aims of other missions, so it is a particular gap that there is none that addresses this mission. Reforms to the planning system provide the opportunity to put this right, so that geography is not destiny and we can reverse the widening gap in health inequalities over recent years. As the White Paper said:
“One of the gravest inequalities faced by our most disadvantaged communities is poor health.”
Our physical environment has a significant effect on the length and quality of our lives.
A similar amendment was dismissed in the other place because the NPPF already emphasises “healthy places”. Since then, a revised NPPF has been put out to consultation, but that does not address the points made in either that debate or the debate on the Healthy Homes Bill, and we are still building new communities which do not meet this basic requirement. Something clearly is not working, and we need to do better.
The proposed new clause proposes to match the levelling-up mission with a new objective for local planning authorities to reduce health inequalities. How exactly they do this would be left up to them, as every area is different. It would empower planners, giving them a mandate to consider what is right for current and future residents. It provides powerful levelling-up tools to those best placed to use them: local authorities, whose experienced planners know the importance of healthy communities.
I hope that my noble friend the Minister will consider concrete measures such as this to deliver on the missions. That can be done only if we work with local councils and give them the mandate and flexibility to succeed.