Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
ensure that local authorities in England have sufficient
resources to meet planned house building targets.
(Con)
My Lords, the Government are committed to our ambition of
delivering 300,000 homes a year. To ensure that local authorities
have sufficient resources, we have laid regulations to increase
planning fees by 35% for major applications and 25% for other
applications. Subject to parliamentary approval, this fee
increase will come into force before the end of the year. We have
also developed a planning capacity and capability programme to
support local authorities to address specific resourcing
challenges.
(Lab)
I thank the Minister for that reply and welcome him to the
Dispatch Box on what I understand is his first occasion answering
Questions. Does he accept that statistics gathered jointly this
month by Close Brothers Property Finance, the Home Builders
Federation and Travis Perkins show that over 90% of respondents
stated that delays in securing local planning permission and lack
of resources in LA planning departments are the major barriers to
building and development? Will he reconsider plans to ring-fence
funds for planning improvement, as well as reinstating new
housing targets, which are surely both essential to house our
growing population and to help more people on to the housing
ladder?
(Con)
My Lords, I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the noble
Lord for his public service over many years as a councillor in
Bredbury, a Member of Parliament in the West Midlands and,
indeed, chair of Stockport County Football Club back in the day.
I accept that it is vital that local planning authorities have
the resources they need to provide an effective planning service.
We did consult on a proposal to ring-fence the fee increase, and
I recognise that it is strongly supported. However, we are not
taking ring-fencing forward as it would overly restrict the local
authorities. In relation to housing targets, the Secretary of
State’s Written Ministerial Statement published on 6 December
2022 confirmed that the standard method of assessing local
housing need will be retained. National planning policy continues
to expect local authorities to follow the standard method to make
sufficient provision for housing and identify the sites that will
deliver much-needed homes to meet the needs of our communities
across the United Kingdom.
(Con)
My Lords, the noble Lord, , rightly refers to the resources
that planning departments need to draw up their local plan, but
they also need the political will to deliver this. Last week the
Housing Minister rightly rebuked Spelthorne Borough Council,
which is under independent control, for not updating its plan for
14 years and failing to meet housing need. Will the Government
take equally robust action against any council, of whatever
colour, if it fails to meet the ambitions the Government have
aspired to of 300,000 homes a year?
(Con)
My noble friend and former Chief Whip is exactly right. He is a
formidable campaigner on issues of home building. I pay tribute
to my right honourable friend the Minister for Housing, who is
absolutely right; the current Spelthorne local plan is nearly 15
years old, meaning that the policies in it will not be up to
date. Withdrawing the plan from examination could lead only to
significant further delay and additional expense while a new plan
is prepared. Local authorities are more at risk from appeals and
speculative planning applications being successful if they do not
have a local plan setting out an up-to-date housing requirement,
as the presumption in favour of sustainable development applies.
Intervening in this plan will accelerate plan production, given
that the current plan is submitted and an examination will ensure
that an up-to-date plan is in place sooner, therefore preventing
speculative developments taking place. Local plans should be
reviewed every five years. The good people of Spelthorne should
expect better from their local politicians of all colours.
(CB)
My Lords, the Government are absolutely right to try to put more
resources into the hands of local planning authorities, because
that is what they desperately need to process all the
applications. But with house prices falling and interest rates
rising, a lot of big housebuilders are pulling back and reducing
their output. They are selling off some of their big sites. Is
this not the perfect moment, while prices are falling, to get a
really big programme of social housing on the go? Let us have a
real go at it now.
(Con)
I agree with the noble Lord. Our £11.5 billion affordable homes
programme will deliver thousands of new homes across the country,
and a large number of these will be for social rent. Local
authorities have a key role to play in increasing the supply of
social housing; in 2021-22 they delivered nearly 800,000
affordable homes, which represented 13% of the overall affordable
housing delivery and the highest recorded number of local
authority completions since 1991-92.
(Lab)
My Lords, I welcome the noble Lord, Lord Evans, to the
ever-growing DLUHC team in your Lordships’ House. I grew up in a
council house, so I know from personal experience that social
housing should be treated as a national asset to be proud of, to
invest in, to protect and to maintain. But local authorities have
had little support under this Government to replenish our
stock—the Minister outlined how much but it does not go very far.
As over 1 million people are still stuck on social housing
waiting lists, will the Government now look again at social
housing policy and help local authorities to build more safe,
secure houses?
(Con)
I too was born and bred for 25 years of my early life in a
council house. Local authorities do a good job, but the noble
Baroness is absolutely right that there is more to do. The
Government have done a good job on affordable housing, but local
authorities of all colours could do a lot more on affordable
housing and social housing in particular. The council housing
that I was brought up in was of very high quality and is still
there today. The communities that it develops are long-standing,
and we need to maintain them.
(LD)
My Lords, I welcome the Minister to his new role. Many local
authorities and local planning authorities are in dire financial
straits at the moment. Indeed, the Secretary of State has put a
commissioner in to deal with the specific case of Birmingham City
Council. In that case, the Secretary of State is setting the
budget priorities of that local planning authority. What
directive has been given to the commissioner by the Secretary of
State to make sure that the priority of planning and housing
development approvals in Birmingham proceeds at a smart pace in a
timely and professional way?
(Con)
I am grateful to the noble Lord for his question on Birmingham
and for the service that he gave to Hazel Grove over many years.
I do not have a specific answer to his Birmingham City Council
question because it is too recent and I do not have it in my
pack, but I will write to him.
(Con)
My Lords, as my noble friend the Minister will know, SME builders
are having a difficult time and are being priced out of the
market because of high interest rates and difficulty borrowing
money and getting funding in the first place. Can he say exactly
what is being done to support these builders? Without them,
England would be worse off.
(Con)
My noble friend is exactly right. SME builders bring some welcome
colour and difference to housing design throughout the country,
and it is very important that we have those independent SME
builders. The Government are committed to supporting SME
housebuilders: last year we launched the levelling-up home
building fund, which is providing £1.5 billion of development
finances to SMEs and builders to support them to build more
homes. The Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill is making changes
to support SMEs, making the planning process faster and more
predictable so that they can plan ahead.
(CB)
My Lords, why do the Government not require solar panels on all
new buildings, particularly new houses and social housing? I
ought to declare an interest: I put solar panels on my house in
Devon in 2009.
(Con)
The noble and learned Baroness is absolutely right to point that
out. There is currently no obligation on housebuilders in new
developments but, as she rightly says, an increasing number of
individuals are putting solar panels on to their own properties,
as she has done. There is no specific requirement for all new
housebuilding, but that does not prevent individual
initiatives.
(Lab)
My Lords, is the Minister aware that your Lordships’ Built
Environment Committee, of which I have the honour of being a
member, is publishing a report today on the very Question asked
by my noble friend? Will he guarantee to read the report in full?
I think he will find that some of the comments and conclusions we
have come to are slightly different from some of the responses he
has given this morning.
(Con)
I am most grateful to the noble Lord. I will not guarantee that I
will read all of the report, but I guarantee that I will read the
report if he wishes to send me a copy. I will then report back to
the department.
