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Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill

As the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois) has made clear, the amendment is designed to insert a three-month delay between the end of the current consultation, which is completed on 28 February, and the spending of any money that the Bill would then authorise. I understand the purpose of the amendment, but I hope that the hon. Gentleman will accept that it is at best unnecessary, and at worst may complicate things and create additional risk for the successful and sensible introduction of any planning gain supplement. I assured the House on Second Reading and in Committee that if the Government decided not to introduce the planning gain supplement, there would be no further expenditure under this legislation. I also want to make it clear, in response to the question that the hon. Gentleman has raised, that clause 1(1) of the Bill sets out the purposes for which expenditure under this legislation can be used, and that they are specifically and strictly related to preparations for the introduction of a possible planning gain supplement. They could not be used for an IT system for other purposes. The Government gave a commitment in the pre-Budget report that we would not introduce a planning gain supplement unless we considered it to be a workable and effective policy. Of course, the decision on whether the planning gain supplement is workable and effective will be informed by the responses to the consultation. I should remind the hon. Gentleman that a consultation is not simply a 12-week period in which the Treasury and the other Departments involved shut up shop and officials sit on their hands, followed by a period of frenetic reading and analysis of correspondence. On the contrary, it is a period of intense activity, particularly by officials who, during the consultation period, have been out meeting and discussing the issues with representatives of all sorts of interested groups right across the United Kingdom in order to determine their concerns about the matters under consultation. So, officials and others have been out there, explaining the proposals and listening to people’s views on them. Many of the written responses to the consultation will formalise the views that we are already aware of and that have already been discussed, and which have been gathered during these meetings. The amendment would simply delay expenditure for up to three months beyond the end of this month, even if we decided to introduce a planning gain supplement before the end of that 90-day period. At best, that would achieve nothing. At worst, it would increase the costs of any IT systems by reducing flexibility and by increasing the time pressures involved in bringing in a planning gain supplement in an orderly and timely way. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will not press the amendment to a vote, but if he does I shall have to ask my hon. Friends to resist it.