Housing and Planning Bill

Viscount Younger of Leckie Excerpts

Thursday 3rd March 2016 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie (Con)]

Following on from my noble friend Lord Young’s remarks, the Minister has been on her feet for nearly an hour and a half and I think that the Committee might allow the noble Lord, Lord Shipley, to respond.

[Lord Shipley]

My Lords, I had not anticipated, when I moved my probing Amendment 37B, that we would be discussing this group some two hours later. However, I think the debate has been very valuable because it has revealed the gaping void in the Government’s thinking. I hope that the Minister will understand that a huge number of questions have been posed. Like, I suspect, many other noble Lords, I have been astonished that the answers are not being provided. After all, this Bill was passed in the other place. It has arrived here; we have had Second Reading, at which the need to publish at least draft regulations was made clear; we are now on day three of seven in Committee and progress is very slow. I think Ministers ought to explain to your Lordships’ House why we are in a position where consultation is taking place so very late that the answers to that consultation are not in our possession as we debate the later stages of the Bill.

I was very disappointed by the response of the Minister as to when regulations are going to be published. I said previously that we would happily receive draft regulations, as opposed to the finished version, but, of course, we now understand why Amendment 45B has appeared on the Marshalled List. I remind noble Lords that it simply says:

“Regulations under this section may amend this Chapter.”

In other words, the Bill is going to be amended by secondary legislation. This is simply an unacceptable position for your Lordships’ House to be put into. Many questions have been raised and I do not think that the Minister has actually answered many at all. I am grateful for offers of meetings and letters, which, I guess, will be copied, but there has been a very large number of questions to which there have not been answers. It is now incumbent upon the Minister and the department to provide a question-and-answer sheet with a set of clear answers to every question posed by noble Lords on this group.

For example, we have a problem with numbers. The Minister cited that 65% of people outside London who are currently renting privately and 40% of people in London who are currently renting privately will be able to take on a starter home. As we know from other agencies, such as Shelter, those figures are disputed. On Tuesday, I think, the Minister agreed that we would have a detailed response to that so we can actually understand the facts with which we are trying to deal.

I was really concerned by the Minister’s remark, and I think I quote her rightly, that there is always going to be abuse of the system. That really is an unacceptable thing for noble Lords to confront. There should not be abuse of the system. There are ways in the planning system—and in the next group, which deals with “in perpetuity”—for this problem to be solved. So I hope that the Minister, in our proceedings after the lunch break, will work with the feeling across all sides of the Committee that we have to do something to make this a much better Bill; for, as it stands, it surely cannot proceed as it has been written. So, while I beg leave to withdraw Amendment 37B, I hope that the Minister has understood the mood of the Committee in demanding clear answers to questions which have also been very clear.