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Standing Committee A
Tuesday 21 October 2003
(Afternoon)
[Mr. Peter Pike in the Chair]
2.30 pm
The Chairman: Before I call the hon. Member for Ludlow (Matthew Green), it is convenient for me to say that I understand that it is the Committee's intention to continue until about 7 pm tonight. Given that, Members should try to adjourn before any Division is called on the Floor of the House, or I may be in difficulty and we may have to come back. I tell the Committee that as a note of friendly guidance.
The second point is that it is my intention to suspend the Committee for about 20 minutes for a break at a convenient point at about half-past 4. In other words, when someone finishes speaking around that time, I shall call a break.
New Clause 30
Access for disabled people
'(1) In the principal Act for section 76 (Duty to draw attention to certain provisions for benefit of disabled) there is substituted the following section—
''76 Access Statements
(1) Any application for planning permission shall not be entertained by the local planning authority, or as the case may be, by the Secretary of State unless it is accompanied by an access statement.
(2) An 'access statement' is a statement which demonstrates that the applicant has fully considered the access requirements of disabled people in relation to the whole development and has described how they intend to meet them.
(3) An access statement shall, in particular, demonstrate that the proposed development complies with relevant statutory duties, relevant access standards and any policies on inclusive design included in the local planning authority's development plan.
(4) Relevant statutory duties include—
(a) the duties of persons providing buildings to which the public are to be admitted, under sections 4 and 7 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 to make provision for members of the public who are disabled;
(b) the duties of persons providing universities, schools, offices and other premises, under sections 7, 8 and 8A of that Act, to make provision for people who are disabled;
(c) the duties of employers and trade organisations, under sections 6 and 15 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and under any code of practice issued by the Disability Rights Commission under section 53A of that Act, to make adjustments to premises; and
(d) the duties of service providers, under section 21 of that Act and under any code of practice issued by the Disability Rights Commission under section 53A of that Act, to make adjustments to premises
(e) the duties of education providers, under section 28T of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and under any code of practice issued by the Disability Rights Commission under section 53A of that Act;
(3) Relevant access standards include—
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(a) British Standard 8300 ''Designing buildings and their approaches to meet the needs of disabled people'' or any document replacing it; and
(b) in the case of developments related to new housing, the Lifetime Homes standard.''
(2) In the principal Act, after section 76 there is inserted the following section—
''76A.Duty to have special regard to needs of disabled people
(1) In dealing with an application to which this section applies the local planning authority, or as the case may be, the Secretary of State shall have special regard to the needs of disabled people and in particular the duties and standards mentioned in section 76.
(2) This section applies to—
(a) an application under sections 62 or 73 for planning permission;
(b) an application under section 92 for the approval of reserved matters; and
(c) an application for the approval of details required under a condition of a grant of planning permission (including a permission granted by a development order).
(3) In this section, the terms ''disabled'' and ''disabled people'' shall be construed in accordance with section 1 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.''
(3) In the Listed Buildings Act 1990—
(a) in section 16 (decision on application), after subsection (2) there is inserted the following subsection—
''(2A) In considering whether to grant listed building consent for any works or to approve details under a condition of a listed building consent, the local planning authority or the Secretary of State shall also have special regard to the needs of disabled people.''
(b) in section 91(2) (interpretation), before ''development plan'', there is inserted ''disabled people,''.
(4) In the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979—
(a) in section 2 (control of works affecting scheduled monuments), after subsection (3) there is inserted the following subsection—
''(3A) In considering whether to grant scheduled monument consent for any works or to approve details under a condition of such a consent, the Secretary of State shall have special regard to the needs of disabled people.''
(b) in section 61(1) (interpretation), before ''designation order'' there is inserted—
''''disabled people'' has the same meaning as in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995;''.'—[Matthew Green.]
Brought up, and read the First time.
Question proposed [this day], That the clause be read a Second time.
Question again proposed.
The Chairman: I remind the Committee that with this we are discussing the following amendments:
No. 132, in
No. 147, in
No. 173, in
No. 148, in
clause 14, page 8, line 25, at end insert—
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No. 172, in
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Yvette Cooper): As I was saying earlier, may I ask the hon. Member for Ludlow to withdraw the new clause?
Matthew Green (Ludlow): I found the Minister's response disappointing. In dealing with the five amendments rather than the new clause, she once again said, ''Ah, but we're just about to produce some draft regulations or''—in this case—''some draft guidance.'' We had that back in January: every time we tabled amendments, we were told that the issues were about to be dealt with in draft guidance and regulations, and we have had a regular spate of such assurances all over again. It does not help the Committee to be told that such things are about to appear next week. That does not endear the Government to those in opposition—not that they set out to do that.
However, I am more concerned with new clause 30, which I am tempted to push to a Division. Four years ago, the Government's own disability rights taskforce recommended:
''The Government should consider the future roles of Section 76 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which requires planning authorities to alert developers to disability access requirements, when a suitable legislative opportunity arises. Developers should be alerted to disability access legislation at the earliest opportunity in the planning process''.
The Government's response in ''Towards Inclusion'' in 2001, after another two years had elapsed, was:
''We agree with the Task Force and will review Section 76 when a suitable opportunity arises''.
In 2001, the Labour manifesto committed the Government to implementing basic rights for disabled people and the recommendations of the taskforce to which they had signed up. Time is now running out for the Government to implement their commitment.
Although new clause 30 is not exactly what the Government had in mind, it is pretty much the essence of what they have said they support. The argument that the problem can be dealt with purely through regulation and guidance does not quite cut the mustard, so I am fully minded to push the new clause to a Division.
Question put, That the clause be read a Second time:—
The Committee divided: Ayes 4, Noes 7.
Division No. 2]
AYES
Chapman, Sir Sydney
Clifton-Brown, Mr. Geoffrey
Francois, Mr. Mark
Green, Matthew
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NOES
Betts, Mr. Clive
Clark, Paul
Cooper, Yvette
Follett, Barbara
Hill, Keith
Rooney, Mr. Terry
Whitehead, Dr. Alan
Question accordingly negatived.
New Clause 31
Enforcement of planning controls
Matthew Green: I beg to move, That the clause be read a Second time.
The new clause is backed by the Campaign to Protect Rural England and, I believe, the Conservatives. It aims to improve the effectiveness of, and therefore public confidence in, local planning by placing local authorities under a statutory duty to enforce planning decisions and to remedy breaches of planning control.
Enforcement is the basis of quality control in the planning system, and proper enforcement is crucial to the credibility of planning. Its neglect undermines public confidence in the whole planning system and may result in significant harm to the environment and to people's quality of life, yet enforcement action is in steady decline and is at its lowest level since records began. The explanation for that does not appear to be a reduction in breaches of planning control but, rather, a retreat from action by local authorities.
Possible reasons for that spiral of decline are: the complexity of the system; the perverse incentives that make planning breaches financially worthwhile for offenders; an imbalance in the system that favours those who breach controls and that leaves local authorities vulnerable to compensation claims; a lack of local authority resources, especially in small, rural district councils, which often have a disproportionately high burden of planning enforcement; and the extensive opportunities for offenders to evade and delay enforcement, thus draining local authority resources.
Other possible reasons are the deterrent effect on local authorities of all those problems, particularly those affecting resources, and the fact that local authorities have the discretion not to take action. Local authorities often give more weight to the reasons against taking action, and choose not to do so, because there is no duty to enforce and because they understandably perceive their primary responsibility to be the provision of that which they have a statutory duty to provide.
Enforcement is commonly underfunded and many authorities fail adequately to monitor conditions that have been placed on planning permissions. Even when the most flagrant breaches of planning control are reported, members of the public can neither require that action be taken nor be confident that the breach will be remedied.
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One local authority—I wish I knew which—apparently told a complainant that it does not carry out any enforcement. Ministers may be surprised by that, as am I, but local authorities can say that because there is no such statutory duty on them. I could give many examples of when there should have been enforcement but there was none, as I am sure other members of the Committee could. To make progress, however, I shall not list such examples from my constituency.
I hope that the Minister will seriously consider placing a statutory duty on local authorities to enforce. The glory of that would be that another Minister in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister would presumably have to find the money for the planning departments to fund it. Given that we have laws, one expects them to be enforced and that people will be given the funds to do so.
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