My Lords, this policy proposal is one of the most contentious issues that we have debated throughout the course of the Bill. So far, it has been a very thoughtful and considered debate about the importance or otherwise of having a centralised group of planning policies imposed on local authorities.
This approach, of having a set of national policies that are imposed on local planning authorities, is not new and does not have a happy history. Even from before my time in local government, some will remember the imposition of county structure plans. Local authorities had to agree to those plans and abide by what was stated in them. That did not end very well. Then in 2004 there was the introduction of regional spatial strategies—this just goes to show that all parties in government have a tendency to centralise—which I remember debating, and they did not end well either. My serious point is that these are messages from history for the Minister and the Government showing that, as the noble Lord, Lord Deben, has said, trying to impose on local communities the Government’s idea of national policies that must be adhered to does not have a happy history.
5.45 pm
Communities are great. If you try to impose something on them without proper consultation and without reason, the reaction is always the same: they oppose it because they have not been part of the discussion leading to the creation of those policies. We can all give examples of how someone’s grand idea ended in tears because they did not talk to people and explain its purpose but just said, “This is a grand idea and it’s what we’re going to do”. That never ends well, and it is the problem here. That is why my noble friend’s detailed amendment is to be supported: it enables the “Let’s have a good think about this before it happens” approach.
There is another issue that I want to highlight. As we all said in Committee, and we will repeat it now, we are being asked in the Bill to agree a national development management policy, full stop. There is no content. The Minister has tried to persuade us of the Government’s good intentions, but the road to hell is paved with
those and good intentions are not enough. We need to see a clear statement of what the content of the NDMP will be. Without that, we would be giving a carte blanche to the Government to impose on local communities their idea of what a local-plan-led system should be like. Saying “These are the policies that you must agree to before you get down to the nitty-gritty of agreeing a local version” will not do. In Committee we asked, and indeed begged, the Minister to give us a clue about what would be in the NDMP, and if I remember rightly the answer was, “Nothing’s going to be said until October”—or possibly November—“and that’s when we will begin to talk about the content of it”. It is not acceptable to ask us to agree to something when we do not know what it will contain.
As my noble friend has pointed out, and this is an important point, the clause enables Ministers to change planning law on a whim. I think that is what my noble friend said. That is not good, and it cannot be right. The Minister is looking puzzled. Maybe she can explain why my noble friend has not got that right. However, if it is right—as I am sure it is, since my noble friend will have had a long, hard look at what the Bill says—I am sure the Minister would not want that to be the case.
We will obviously support my noble friend if she chooses to test the opinion of the House on this issue and her amendment. All of us, across the Chamber, want a better planning system. We want communities to be able to build what works for them, with the facilities and amenities that they need for a growing community. We know that we need economic development, as well as housebuilding, and that that is at the heart of levelling up. I repeat, and I shall keep saying it: where is that, then, in this section? Where is the bit that says that we are going to help level up less fortunate communities by doing this? That is what the Bill should be about.
All that we are asking in Amendment 190 is for the Government to enable full parliamentary scrutiny of the content of any policies they may wish to put in the NDMP. This has been a good, thoughtful and considered debate. I hope that the Minister will take it in the spirit in which it is intended and respond by saying that she totally agrees and will, on behalf of the Government, accept Amendment 190.