---

Planning and Energy Bill

I congratulate the hon. Member for Sevenoaks (Mr. Fallon) on achieving, I believe, the Third Reading of his Bill today; we have about half an hour to go, but I think he will comfortably achieve his target. To get a private Member's Bill through this House is a remarkable achievement, and very few Members succeed in it. He should be congratulated not only on his success in delivering his Bill through the House today, but on the good-humoured way in which he has set about his work. He has listened to what people have said to him, he has been prepared to amend the Bill to reflect the views expressed, particularly by the Government, and as a result he has produced a Bill that is worthy of support and that should be able to progress further today. When the hon. Gentleman introduced the Bill on Second Reading, he said:"““This is not a big Bill, but it does one important thing: it will enshrine in law, I hope, the so-called Merton rule””.—[Official Report, 25 January 2008; Vol. 470, c. 1733.]" The Merton rule is that 10 per cent. of the new energy required for a development must come from renewable or low-carbon sources on or near that development. I am not sure that the hon. Gentleman has quite been able to achieve the objective of enshrining that rule in law, because the 10 per cent. figure is not there, but I actually think he has achieved something more useful. The problem with the Merton rule is that it is potentially inflexible for local authorities that might have difficulties with it. How he has proceeded may be akin to going at the pace of the slowest ship in the convoy, but it means that there will be progress across the piece, because most local authorities will take on board his proposals. The hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Julia Goldsworthy) has identified one of the key problems both with the Bill and also more generally: the lack of impact on existing housing stock. We debated that today in relation to some of my new clauses—particularly in response to interventions from my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Martin Linton), who raised the point. It will be very difficult to interpret the Bill as it now stands as giving local authorities powers to intervene in relation to existing developments. The extent of that problem becomes clear when we consider the figures I mentioned earlier, such as that a low percentage of houses in the country comply with the insulation requirements, never mind some of the other desirable factors that lead to a reduction in energy consumption. That is a lacuna in the Bill, but it is not the hon. Gentleman's fault. It would be very difficult to devise a Bill that dealt with existing properties and would not be draconian to the householders concerned and potentially leave them facing enormous bills. As my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Chris Mole) said, however, if we start with new-build we can begin to get economies of scale—through modern prefabrication methods and better use of technology, for example—and start to make some real progress towards achieving these targets. It is important that we do not forget the older properties; we will have to find a way of dealing with them, but that will have to be a Bill for another day, if anyone can devise one that will achieve that. We need to look at the reasons why the hon. Gentleman introduced the Bill, and why the House should approve it today. The UK has to satisfy two sets of renewables targets, both of which will be extremely challenging. The first is our own domestic target of 10 per cent. of electricity generation to be met from renewable sources by 2010, and an aspiration of 20 per cent. by 2020. The second, as the Minister mentioned, is the EU's binding target, to which the previous Prime Minister signed up at the spring European Council meeting of March 2007, that 20 per cent. of the overall European energy mix be generated from renewables by 2020. The EU's target, which encompasses all forms of energy, will clearly be much more difficult to meet than the UK's simple electricity target. Electricity accounted for only 18.5 per cent. of the energy used in the UK in 2006, the latest year for which figures are available. Nuclear power—the elephant in the room when anyone talks about energy policy—as a low-carbon source, is to count towards the EU target, and there is to be some burden sharing, but there is no doubt that the proposal will be very difficult to achieve. As has also been mentioned, this is not the first attempt to introduce a Bill along these lines; my hon. Friend the Member for Gower (Mr. Caton) attempted to do so previously. An Opposition Member has been able to get further than one of my hon. Friends in achieving the same objective, which might be a reflection of how the different Bills were phrased, but it might also reflect the growing awareness in the House about the importance of taking action to deal with the serious problem that this Bill seeks to address. As time goes by, we are becoming increasingly aware of the problems of climate change—the latest figures show that CO2 emissions have risen consistently over the past four years—and energy efficiency, as promulgated by the Bill, is the simplest and most cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions. As we have heard, the planning system does not make sufficient provision for energy efficiency. The Liberal Democrats have told us about the problems that Cambridge city council has faced. It was required to water down its planning policy, which required large developers to"““provide evidence of how they have minimized energy consumption, maximized energy efficiency and considered the feasibility of using CHP systems””." The Government inspector said that the policy was"““unreasonable to the extent that it imposes more onerous requirements than the Building Regulations””." What happened in Cambridge—the man from Bristol interfering in the way that he did—brings into sharp focus the essential nature of the Bill, because it will entirely plug that gap in the law, assuming that the requirements that a local authority intends to impose are reasonable; we do not want unreasonable requirements to be imposed. That is why when we started on the trail of this Bill to talk about percentages and the original Merton rule, we could have created problems, because imposing particular fixed percentages could have created difficulties for some local authorities, although not for others. The Department for Communities and Local Government has launched two consultations on the planning issues. The first is on the proposed planning policy statement on planning and climate change, and the second is on the Government's plans for moving towards zero carbon development by 2016. Both are underpinned by the new voluntary code for sustainable homes, on whose progress the Minister brought us a little more up to date. We must ask how the Bill will change the current position; any assessment of the Bill must be based on that question. In responding to my second group of proposals, the Minister would have been aware that I had pushed him very hard on this matter, because there is no point in the House passing legislation if it will not achieve anything or if no value-added flows from it. One of my main concerns about how he replied to the debate was his saying, ““Well we have these national standards.”” He seemed to be slightly blinkered in not reflecting on what the Bill will do, which is move beyond those national standards. Ultimately, the Planning Inspectorate, which is answerable to the Minister's boss, the Secretary of State, will also have to reflect on that and on what it will mean. It will mean being prepared to go beyond the national standards. They may well be the safety net and the bottom rung of the ladder—the Minister expanded on those very effectively—but we must go beyond them. Showing how the Bill will change the current position might not be as easy as it seems. As we have heard today, the Government have introduced policies to encourage on-site energy generation, renewables and energy conservation. In particular, the 2004 planning policy statement on renewable energy and the 2007 planning policy statement on climate change include guidance for local authorities that encourages such action, including on-site generation. The Bill will provide a statutory basis for including targets in local development frameworks and development plans, but will not specify particular targets. Local authorities will therefore have to think hard and fast about how to do that. Local planning authority policies on environmental standards for new homes vary in their scope, specific requirements and degree of prescription, but there is also variation in how and when local planning authorities seek to apply such policies. Some have identified policies on environmental standards in their adopted development plans, or have proposed them in their draft plans. Changes to the planning system will mean that all councils will be expected to provide for on-site renewable energy and local community energy schemes to help to cut carbon emissions in new developments. The planning rules will mean that councils and developers should consider using items such as solar panels, wind turbines and heat pumps that can generate energy from a site of new development. The word ““locality”” has caused some difficulty in that regard. The plans that will come through the system will build on the Merton rule, but will not be as prescriptive. Moving towards a low-carbon economy is a huge challenge that requires a revolution in the way in which we design, heat and power our buildings, as well as a concerted effort from a huge number of organisations, including local authorities, developers, environmental groups and local communities. A simple analysis of the existing position regarding our homes shows the scale of the challenge. The percentage of homes with cavity wall insulation has increased from 20 per cent. of our housing stock in 1996 to 36 per cent. now, but a further 8.5 million homes could benefit from it. That would save a significant amount of energy each year—and it is not an expensive thing to do. That brings us back to our debate about the educational function of the Bill. Its aim has to be encourage local authorities to require more local renewable energy generation and systems such as combined heat and power in new developments. The Bill provides a mechanism by which local authorities may be allowed to go further and faster than central Government, which will always be the lumbering supertanker coming up behind—if one can use the analogy of an oil tanker in a debate on renewable energy. The Bill gives local authorities the opportunity to forge ahead, speedboat style, and pilot the supertanker by developing new policies that could, if they work, be adopted by the Government as central policies. My hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North (Stephen Pound)—a former matelot—is squinting at my nautical analogies. I am probably getting a bit carried away with mixed metaphors.