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Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill

Like all the distinguished speakers in this debate, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this paving Bill. I come to the debate from two different perspectives: first, from that of our debate in the Environmental Audit Committee two years ago; the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois) also served on that Committee. The issue in that debate was how, whatever investment is made in the south-east, we should make sure that we build sustainable communities. It is important that we consider environmental impact assessments and how they relate to infrastructure. My other starting point, which makes it so important for me to speak in this debate, is our situation in north Staffordshire. Many of the contributions so far have been about development in the south-east and how to get infrastructure there; my concern is about north Staffordshire, an area in need of great regeneration. Ministers know all too well about our problems there. I place my contribution in the context of the two issues that I have mentioned. From the outset, I should say that I wholeheartedly support the principle of developers contributing to infrastructure and community facilities. It is important that we do not think that ““one size fits all”” on this issue. We should consider how we can get the right kind of investment to different parts of England—and Scotland and Wales as well—and back it up with the different means of raising it that are required. I hope that Ministers and those charged with taking forward the debate will consider the key partners with whom they need to have ongoing discussions. I particularly hope that those will include the Town and Country Planning Association and, not least, those responsible for taking forward housing market renewal programmes. Outside the south-east and the four or so areas in which there is already commitment for growth, the housing market renewal areas also need to be included in the debate as it is taken forward. I briefly refer back to the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee report two years ago. I remind the House that the Government recognised"““that a PGS alone cannot fund the infrastructure needed to support housing growth, so alongside dedicating PGS revenues to such infrastructure the Government has announced a cross-cutting review into supporting housing growth as part of the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review.””" The Government also said that"““to be successful in its delivery of new communities that are sustainable environmentally, socially and economically, the essential decisions on investment in infrastructure needed to support planned housing growth need to be taken in the context of existing spending programmes, strategic tools such as co-ordinated growth plans and the Government’s future spending plans, including robust assessment as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review process.””" I am particularly pleased that our debate on this paving Bill includes my hon. Friends the Financial Secretary and the Minister for Housing and Planning. It is critical that the Government should take a joined-up, cross-cutting approach to their planning gain supplement proposals. In the context of north Staffordshire, I say gently to my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning that the developers responsible for investing heavily in my area and the practitioners have both flagged up concerns with me. I have got to know practitioners from meetings that I have had—not least a wonderful awayday with the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment and Renew North Staffordshire last Monday. Those practitioners really want the best possible job to be done in north Staffordshire, where a huge amount of derelict land, and land already being recycled, can be recycled into sustainable communities as part of vibrant economic, social and environmental policies. It is important that we get that right. I also want to flag up constituents’ concerns. Even before we consider how the new tax might work, I would like the Minister to take one step backwards and consider the existing housing legislation relating to the compensation paid to people when their homes are acquired for the purposes of housing market renewal. Such people find themselves unable, even with the extra support through section 106 and other means, to get like for like. Perhaps they very much want to carry on living in the community of the housing market renewal, and want to be there in five and 10 years’ time. However, they will get insufficient compensation to buy the kind of house that they had before in the area to which they are attached. I urge the Minister for Housing and Planning to consider our cases studies in north Staffordshire. We are talking about a tax on land at the stage when it has an uplift and about the profits that developers are making. Rightly, we want those to go into improved infrastructure. However, I am also concerned about home owners who will not be involved in the profits from the sale of the property, so the development will be at their expense unless we find a way of pulling those issues together. I urge my hon. Friend to consider that closely. Practitioners too have expressed concerns to me. I have concerns about the fact that we have a paving Bill without knowing any of the constraints under which we are to operate. I should like us to look beyond the south-east to brownfield sites such as those I that described in Stoke-on-Trent. I urge that in pre-legislative scrutiny, we consider all the details of the issues that I am flagging up now. In the first instance, the Government have suggested that under the new system, infrastructure falling outside the narrower scope of planning obligations will be delivered through other public sector funding mechanisms. However, I am still not clear about how that system will provide the confidence that pathfinder areas will have. A high priority is needed for infrastructure funding. As we work out the area research and master planning, it is already clear that although the urban core of north Staffordshire has already established how much infrastructure investment is needed and the economic and social contexts, there will have to be huge investment. It is difficult to see where the parallel investment in the environment and public realm will come from. For example, the latest criteria for assessing bids to the transport innovation fund are unhelpful to us in north Staffordshire, because there is no obvious source for investment in housing, in the city centre and in new jobs and facilities. I want the Government to consider how their national departmental functions can be wholly aligned and supportive of the sustainable communities programme so that we can match the new housing investment with that needed for new education and all the other things required. It would be helpful to have assurances on the Government’s commitment to the alignment of infrastructure funding gathered through the supplement. I hope that it can be linked with other mechanisms to support substantial infrastructure investment underpinning north Staffordshire’s pathfinder programme, along with related investments in the city centre, key employment sites and an education centre. The provisions for the review referred to in the ““Changes to Planning Obligations”” consultation paper seem to refer only to financial provision for investment in growth areas, but the pathfinder areas are just as important as the growth areas. I hope that when the Minister is developing her thinking on PSG, she will not distinguish between growth areas and pathfinders; otherwise the PSG will be seen as merely another form of very centralised tax gathering for the Treasury, with no benefits for the regeneration and market renewal investments that my constituency needs so badly. Earlier speakers mentioned affordable housing contributions. The proposal for a clear legal and policy basis for them is welcome, but the proposal for a common starting point, using the value of the site for a dwelling as a basis for negotiating affordable housing contributions, could cause difficulties. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister will consider that in detail. I should like to say a little about the way in which the consultation paper dealt with—or perhaps did not deal with—planning methodologies. Substantial change is already taking place, and we need to catch up with the whole local development framework. Planning inspectors are making decisions about planning applications, and there is real concern that they may not be in line with the framework. There are also issues relating to regional spatial strategy, the local planning authority and the planning inspectorate, which have already been drawn to the attention of Lady Andrews, the housing Minister in the other place, in the context of the new planning policy statement 3. It would be useful to have an assurance that PPS3 will give weight to the housing market renewal programme in the assessment and development of statutory planning policy at regional and local level, and in the determination of planning applications. My discussions with the housing Minister in the other place lead me to hope that she will visit Stoke-on-Trent and north Staffordshire in the not too distant future, which might provide an opportunity for those discussions to be taken further. This may not be the right time or the right place for me to say what I am going to say, but there never is a right time and a right place. I remind my hon. Friend that part of our housing market renewal programme is closely linked to desperately needed economic regeneration. One of the targets that we have set ourselves is try to relocate a Government agency from the south-east to Stoke-on-Trent, so that we can provide jobs for those who will build the new houses that are needed in north Staffordshire’s housing pathfinder area. When my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary introduced this paving Bill, he spoke of the dedicated team in the unit that would collect the tax and provide a valuation service. Has any thought been given to where it will be based? Could that be put in the context of the Lyons review and the Office of Government Commerce? Perhaps north Staffordshire could be considered as a location for some of the unit’s paving work, given that resources are available. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to raise issues, particularly those relating to my constituency, and I hope that in her reply this evening and in future discussions, meetings and visits to north Staffordshire, the Minister will be able to pursue them further.