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Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (Amendment) Bill

In fact, I meant to refer to the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Jeremy Wright), not the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr. Jackson). I do not want to be the cause of compliments or insults—I will let people make up their own mind. You are right, Mr. Deputy Speaker, to direct me to section 106, although it is obvious that we have a good story on decent homes, and I was keen to tell it. Section 106 is a vehicle for delivery. As the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey will know, section 106 agreements, also known as planning obligations, are private legal agreements between local authorities and developers. They can be attached to a planning permission to make acceptable a proposed development that would otherwise be unacceptable in planning terms. Such obligations can be used to prescribe the nature of a new development, for example, requiring a given portion of new market housing on a site to be provided as affordable housing. They can be used to compensate for loss or damage created by a development—for example, loss of open space caused by a new development. Finally, they can be used to mitigate the impact of a development, for example, through increased public transport provision, where the impact of new development puts pressure on existing services. That point was made by the hon. Member for Rugby and Kenilworth.