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Housing and Regeneration Bill

Amendment No. 61 in this group is in my name. It would insert the words: "““The HCA shall ensure that its plans and activities fully respect the purposes and objectives of Green Belt designation””." In a sense, this deals with a special case as regards planning issues and the relationship between the HCA and local development plans and so on, which we shall come on to when we talk about designated areas. However, it goes wider than that because it refers to the HCA in all its activities and not just as a planning authority in some places. The green belt has been one of our most successful planning tools since the inception of the modern-day planning system. It helps to safeguard the countryside and precious open spaces near large urban populations; it protects an area’s character and identity by preventing settlements from coalescing; and it curtails urban sprawl and encourages regeneration. Although there has recently been much more debate about how efficient green belts are and about how permanent they should be, all those things remain fundamentally true. It is vital that the HCA fully recognises those benefits and that it has a high regard for green-belt objectives and purposes. As we know, the green belt is threatened in many parts of the country. Over 1,100 hectares of green belt have been lost each year since 1997 and at least 45,240 homes, equivalent to a city the size of Bath—I am not sure why Bath is given as the example—have been built on green-belt land since 1997. London’s green belt has been subject to review in 18 locations. Until fairly recently, when people talked about the green belt, they were referring to London, but green belts have appeared in the rest of the country over the past 25 years. To protect the green belt, it is necessary to put in place measures to avoid abuse of powers and address potential conflicts of interest—for example, between the HCA’s roles as developer, landowner and planning authority, and in its role as a provider and facilitator of social housing. Of course, these conflicts are not new. Local authorities manage, and in most cases have good systems for dealing with, these kinds of conflict. The point about local authorities is that they are elected, local and democratic and, in most cases nowadays, they take their decisions in a fairly, and sometimes very, open way, exposed to local debate. The way in which a big national quango works is different. It may be less different than some of us fear; nevertheless, it is different. The purpose of the amendment is to put on the face of the Bill a clear requirement to take note of the importance of the green belt.