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Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill

I apologise to the Minister for not being present for her opening words. May I say that I saw a wedding photograph of her in a long, midnight blue dress and was most taken aback? I hope that that in some way mitigates her concern at my missing her opening speech. [Interruption.] I apologise—apparently, her colleague made the opening speech. I did say that I was not here then, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and that proves the point conclusively. By the way, the dress was beautiful. I should declare an interest as a county councillor for Northamptonshire, a county that is heavily involved in the sustainable communities project. Let me give the House an idea of what that project will mean to my county. By 2023, an additional 100,000 houses will have been built there and, by 2031, a further 67,000 will have been built. That could increase the population of Northamptonshire, which stands at some 630,000, by 50 per cent. In other words, it could increase by between 300,000 and 360,000. The House will appreciate that such a population uplift will place a tremendous demand on the infrastructure and mean that the county will require a further 1,100 hospital beds. By 2031, we will also require an additional 20 upper schools and 60 primary schools. That is to say little of roads or of improving what is a not very good rail transport situation, particularly so far as the connections to London and Birmingham are concerned. It is fair and proper to say that they have improved of late under this Government, but the fact remains that we are talking about a loop away from the main line that will not be able to service the proposed population increases. We already know that there will be a service provision shortfall of some £715 million over the next 16 years. I hope that the House is getting the impression that we face some serious problems and that we need some serious help. I turn to the Green Paper that has been pointed out to me in no uncertain terms by Labour Members. Incorrectly, we are relying massively on this little Green Paper and the increase in planning gain that it will bring to the people of Northamptonshire. The belief is that there will be a planning gain of between £40,000 and £60,000 per house. It does not take a rocket scientist to work out that, at say £40,000 per house, building 40 houses per hectare will bring in a tax of £1.6 million. Crudely speaking, that is the approximate current price of a hectare of land for development in Northamptonshire. The urban development corporation believes that it might bring in £1.6 million per hectare, and that there will not be an increase in land prices. However, I cannot imagine anybody with any sense simply giving the land to the corporation, so we are left with a conundrum. There is no way in God’s heaven that the money raised by the planning gain supplement will come anywhere near meeting the cost of the infrastructure that the county will require to support the 50 per cent. increase in population.