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Housing and Regeneration Bill

I see that you are poised to pounce like a cat, Mr. Deputy Speaker, so I shall be careful to remain in order. The subject of design was raised by the hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield and my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock, and I agree with both of them. The hon. Member for Welwyn Hatfield may be surprised to learn that I think local planning authorities should be more robust in rejecting planning applications that do not step up to the plate. My hon. Friend said—I think I quote him correctly—that at best some housing developments are bland, and that some suggest lazy initiatives on the part of developers. I would go further: I consider some developments depressing and demoralising. Throughout the Bill's passage, I have said that the current system is short-term and expensive for the public purse. If we build boxes or rabbit hutches now, in 20 or 30 years we shall need substantial amounts of public money to deal with the resulting problems. I do not want someone to stand at this Dispatch Box in 2040 saying that we must deal with the design and planning errors of 2010 or 2015.