argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
George Young (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, Amendment 99ZA reflects an amendment that I moved in Committee. It received general approbation but I was advised by my noble friend the Minister to withdraw it so that it might have cosmetic surgery to make it slightly more attractive. I have now retabled it. In a nutshell, the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which I think I put on the statute book, allows a tenants’ association made up of "qualifying tenants" to seek statutory recognition. Such recognition provides the tenants’ association with additional rights over and above those enjoyed by individual leaseholders, including the right to be consulted about the appointment of managing agents and to be notified of works proposed by the landlord and to receive copies of estimates It has become apparent that tenants’ associations are finding it increasingly difficult to attain the number of members they need before they can apply for statutory recognition. This is because of difficulties in contacting absent leaseholders: that is, leaseholders who are not resident in a block—for example, buy-to-let investors. The amendment addresses that problem by requiring a landlord to supply to the secretary of a tenants’ association information which would allow contact to be made with absent leaseholders for the purpose of increasing the association’s membership and thereby its chances of obtaining recognition. That needs to be subject to the leaseholders’ consent to comply with data protection Amendment 99A seeks to address an irregularity concerning consideration of the recovery of a landlord’s costs from leaseholders as administrative charges. As noble Lords heard in Committee, at present, where a lease allows a landlord to recover the costs of legal proceedings through the service charge, a court or tribunal can decide to restrict the amount that can be recovered in that way. Courts or tribunals do not have similar powers where recovery of the costs of proceedings as an administrative charge is permitted by the lease. This can lead to unfairness, as the leaseholder will have no choice but to pay the cost of proceedings as an administration charge, regardless of the proceedings. Arguably, this discourages leaseholders from exercising their right to challenge the amount of a service charge, particularly as landlords’ costs in those proceedings could well exceed the amount in dispute The amendment would enable the tribunal or court to consider, on application, whether it is reasonable for a landlord to recover all or part of the costs. That is not to say that a landlord should not be able to recover the costs, but, rather, that the tribunal or court should be able to consider whether it is reasonable for them to do so. I am sure that noble Lords will agree that such an irregularity should be corrected. Amendment 138B simply brings these two amendments into force. I beg to move.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I hope that I can honour that approach. However, before I begin, I will take this opportunity personally to welcome back to her place my noble friend Lady Hanham. She is a much-valued colleague and has been much missed I thank my noble friend Lord Young for tabling these amendments, which have clearly generated support across the House in this very short debate. I appreciate that we discussed them in Committee, but it is helpful to be able to consider them once again today. They follow helpful interventions in both Houses, and I take this opportunity to thank both my noble friend and Sir Peter Bottomley in the other place for raising awareness of such issues As my noble friend eloquently set out, giving leaseholders the right to obtain contact information for other leaseholders in a shared block from their landlord, subject to their consent, will help those leaseholders fulfil their statutory right to have their tenants’ association recognised. Addressing the irregularity concerning the inability of courts and tribunals to restrict recovery of a landlord’s legal costs from leaseholders as administrative charges where they consider it appropriate will help to address a perceived unfairness in the current system, which I think we can all agree is the right thing to do. In conclusion, I am very happy to accept my noble friend’s amendments and I hope that they will be accepted by the House.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am not entirely sticking to a script. In saying that, though, I hope I can reflect the views of the Government accurately. I add my tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, and of course to the parliamentary draftsmen, who have turned this around so quickly. The noble Baroness and the noble Lord are experts in this area and have taught me much about it over the past few weeks. We have met them both in recent days and I have listened carefully to the points they have made I thank the noble Baroness for tabling this amendment following our discussion. If approved by this House, it will provide an enabling power for the Secretary of State to make regulations by affirmative procedure to require letting agents and property management agents to belong to a client money protection scheme. It will also provide a clear enforcement mechanism, which is important for ensuring that this regulation has teeth The Government have already shown our commitment to taking steps on this issue, committing to a review of the transparency legislation, which includes a requirement for letting agents to be transparent about whether they offer client money protection, and to work with the sector to explore the detailed options for regulation. However, it is important that we ensure that the regulation is balanced and does not overburden the sector, and that we get the detail of the legislation right and do not rush into it. So the review will be important in informing the details of the regulation, and I am very happy to give my assurance that the Government will act on its findings at the earliest opportunity There has been some discussion about "must", "shall" and "may". I have almost lost track of where we got to on the amendment, but I think we were satisfied on the balance of "must", "may" and "shall". Still, in no way does that lessen our commitment to the issue at hand I inform the House that the Housing Minister and I have asked the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord Palmer, to play a key role in the review of client money protection and transparency, reflecting their knowledge of and commitment to these issues, and I am very grateful that they have agreed. I hope that, with those points in mind, noble Lords will agree to support the amendment. I think that is the first time I have said that in this housing Bill.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Mixed Topics
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): The noble Lord, Lord Campbell-Savours, was extremely helpful in debates on this matter in Committee and he raises an important point. That leads me to say that, as a result of this debate and the debate in Committee, we now want to work closely with my noble friend Lady Gardner and all those interested in the sector to consider the complexities of these detailed issues. We need to balance the rights of all parties and consider how well the existing routes to push necessary repairs or vary leases work through the First-tier Tribunal and look at how all the aspects are working. I would like, with the Minister, to meet my noble friend Lady Gardner to discuss this issue, and I am sure that all noble Lords who have taken part in this debate would be most welcome to attend. I hope that, with my assurance to take these issues forward and look at the complexities, my noble friend will feel able to withdraw her amendment.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Rachel Trixie Anne Gardner (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, the comments that have been made are very interesting and I am grateful to all those who have given their support. However, we tend to overlook the fact that there are now something like 6 million leaseholders, so we are not talking about a little subject. It is a pretty big one that is important to a great many people. It cannot just be brushed aside as something that it would be nice to do I would love to see a completely new consolidation Act for all property issues; I raised this at a meeting where I was asked to give a speech. I said that people should write to their MPs and press for one. A man who said he was a member of the Law Commission made it clear that the commission does nothing for nothing now, so the only way you could get it to prepare a consolidation Act, which it often used to do in the past, is by pre-paying for it. Some Government must decide that it is time to put all property legislation, which keeps a lot of solicitors happily and expensively employed referring to Act after Act with each one changing the previous one, into one Act. It is all piecemeal and there is no cohesion. Those 6 million leaseholders and the multiplicity of legislation are big problems for us The noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, said that this might well be a growing problem, and I think he is right. Foreign ownership and the fact that so many people are having to move out of London because service charges are too high are the reasons for these issues. What the Minister had to say was very good, but he has not really given an indication that he will say anything before Third Reading, which is coming up pretty soon. What I would like to hear from him is that he will look at another approach, either through regulations or in some other way, to deal with this. That, at least, would put his good intentions on the record. As I say, it is important that these issues are not just pushed aside, which has been the case too many times when I have raised them. This basically applies to the situation as set out in Amendment 101.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Other
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): I did not say that and I would not want to give any guarantees before Third Reading, but I have guaranteed to meet my noble friend the Minister outside the Chamber to look into these issues.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Other
Rachel Trixie Anne Gardner (Conservative, Centre-right): It sounds as if there is a bit more interest than there often is on this subject. People have been excellent in clarifying and supporting this. We heard the technical side from the noble Earl, Lord Lytton, which is very valuable—think of what you would pay for his professional opinion on that; we have had the benefit of it for nothing. The Minister is well intentioned, as was my noble friend in responding. On that basis, this is too big an issue to try to put into the Bill, which is already enormous, but it must not be overlooked. We must come back to it. For that reason, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Mark Schreiber (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I support this important amendment. It is important because we are talking about the grass-roots of democracy. I believe that the Conservative Party supports the grass-roots of democracy but it must demonstrate that it is prepared to encourage, listen to and respect them. There is no point in saying that they do not matter and that an outside developer has a pre-emption to overrule local opinion. Almost by definition, local opinion is well-informed. It may be controversial but it sorts itself out at the grass-roots and it is most important that we support this amendment, or something very like it. The Government may have different views but it is a very limited and modest amendment The role of parish councils in the planning system, supported by neighbourhood plans, is extremely important. First, that is because they are local and have people who know what it is all about; secondly, they are an important factor in the integrity of a planning system. I should declare that I am chairman of the Marlesford parish council. An important aspect of the planning system is that elected councillors on planning authorities have time to consider only very few planning applications, most of which are passed on the nod. Many years ago, when I was on Suffolk County Council, we had two lists: list A and list B. The meetings were never long enough to consider those on list A, which is the one we were invited to consider, and in practice we had to pass those on list B on the nod. I remember saying to myself, "If I really wanted to get something through, whatever local councillors might think, if I could get it on to list B I would be home and dry". Parish councils are therefore an important safety check, not just in terms of expressing local views on proposals but in ensuring the integrity of the planning system. The sort of provision proposed by the noble Baroness is therefore an important step and I hope the Government will look sympathetically at doing something along these lines.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Gary Porter (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I had not intended to speak to these amendments and I do not really want to, but I need to refute the claims that councils pass planning applications on the nod. The vast majority of planning applications are quite clearly policy-compliant, which is why almost nine out of 10 are granted. They are not passed on the nod but passed by delegated powers because they are planning-compliant. The ones that are controversial either locally or, more importantly, because they are not policy-compliant will be the ones dealt with in planning committees, which do not need to see all the planning applications. They need to have faith in the professionally trained planning officers to be able to work to policy-compliant applications. I just do not want any of your Lordships to be under any misapprehension that councils pass planning applications on the nod.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, throughout this Bill we have discussed the importance of local plans in setting out the vision for a local area and providing certainty to communities and businesses as to where new homes and other development will go. Local planning authorities are required to prepare and maintain a local development scheme. This sets out the development plan documents—the documents that make up a local plan—that an authority intends to produce and the timetable for producing them. Existing powers enable the Secretary of State, or the Mayor of London where the local planning authority is a London borough, to direct a local planning authority to make amendments to their local development scheme. Clause 129 amends that power to ensure that the Secretary of State can direct amendments that relate to both the subject matter and geographical coverage of the documents specified in the scheme I propose minor amendments to Clause 129 to enable the Secretary of State to prepare a local development scheme for a local planning authority and to direct an authority to bring that scheme into effect. The amendments ensure that where an authority has failed to set out publicly its intention to produce a local plan and indeed a timetable for doing so, we can take action and provide certainty for all communities that a plan for their area will be prepared and that they will have an opportunity to get involved in the plan-making process. I beg to move.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Andrew Lansley (Conservative, Centre-right): I am grateful to the noble Lord for giving way. I am trying to follow this amendment and the debate on it. I understood a local development scheme to be a description on the part of the local authority of how it is going to go about the process of creating its local development plan, not the local development plan itself. To that extent, the amendment, while not technical, in effect takes over, where a local authority has failed to say that it will undertake the process of local development plan preparation, to put a scheme in place for that to happen, but as a consequence of that it does not take over the plan-making process itself.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Andrew Lansley (Conservative, Centre-right): For the purposes of clarification, can my noble friend be very clear about this? The amendment we are debating is about a power for the Secretary of State or the mayor, where appropriate, to take over and direct that their local authority should have a local development scheme. It is not taking over the plan-making process itself, and that is a very important distinction. I am afraid that the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, was predicated on it being the taking over of the plan-making process.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
James Younger (Conservative, Centre-right): That is absolutely correct. If it had not be clarified before, it must be clarified. It is simply a means of taking over the plan-making process, not taking over the whole plan for good—that is a very important point We set out our proposals for prioritised intervention, where the least progress in plan-making has been made. Where policies and plans have not been kept up to date and there is higher housing pressure, for example, intervention will have the greatest impact in accelerating local plan production. To finish on that note, the fact is that where nothing is being done, it is right that as a last resort there should be government intervention. I hope that that will reassure the noble Lord, Lord Stunell, and the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am pleased to have the opportunity to open further discussion on the permission in principle measure today. I appreciate the time and effort that noble Lords have invested, in particular the noble Lords, Lord Beecham and Lord Kennedy, and the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, in considering its detailed implications. I am grateful that they have shared their experience and expertise, which have proved extremely helpful in ensuring that permission in principle operates as effectively as possible In a moment, I will explain our government amendments to Clause 136 and why I believe they demonstrate that the Government have listened to the views expressed in Committee and have taken action accordingly to improve the functioning of this measure. However, given that we have some further amendments on it, I shall briefly remind noble Lords what the Government are seeking to achieve and why we believe it is a worthwhile measure that should remain part of the Bill We know that there is concern in the industry about the lack of up-front certainty in the current planning system. In Committee, I highlighted issues around the cost of submitting outline and full applications without confirmation of the acceptability of the principles between plan-making and planning application stage. All these have been raised with my department by the Planning Officers Society, the Home Builders Federation and the Federation of Master Builders, and I highlighted that even last summer’s Lyons review recommended an approach where the principle of development is established earlier. Permission in principle seeks to respond to these concerns by making the planning process more certain and more efficient. It will help provide a way for small builders to enter the market and for locally supported plan development to get under way faster I explained at length in Committee that local authorities and neighbourhood forums would be in the driving seat when it came to choosing to grant permission in principle. I gave strong confirmation that the approach taken to granting permission in principle would be in line with local policy and the National Planning Policy Framework I hope that these brief comments have given noble Lords an update on the value of the measure. Alongside some of the amendments that we are laying to provide greater certainty on the use of permission in principle, I hope that this is enough to persuade the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, and the noble Baroness, Lady Andrews, to reconsider their opposition to the clause.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am just giving a brief overview and shall now move on to the amendments. They were introductory remarks—scene-setting, if you like—and I shall now speak to Amendments 102C, 102D and 102E. I may have been a little premature in some of my remarks, but they were intended to be helpful; I am sorry if it is felt that I have been a little ahead of myself I am keen to touch on the merits of permission in principle and to set out the amendments that the Government are making today. However, I shall turn first to the amendments tabled and comments made by the noble Lords, Lord Beecham and Lord Kennedy, that would restrict the granting of permission in principle Although I understand why the noble Lords have returned with the amendments, I must set out why we cannot accept them. First, and most importantly, Amendment 102D would limit the granting of permission in principle to brownfield land, as my noble friend Lord Lansley said. During the passage of this Bill, the Government have been consistently clear that permission in principle is a measure that aims to strengthen the local plan-led system and ensure that development takes place on sites that people want to see built. The amendment therefore represents an unnecessary restriction on the Government’s desire to bring forward development where it is considered to be appropriate locally In Committee, I gave strong assurances that the choice about where to grant permission in principle would be a local one, guided by local policy and the NPPF. To put it very clearly, restricting the granting of permission in principle to brownfield sites would remove the ability for local authorities to grant permission in principle to other sites that they considered perfectly suitable for housing-led development, in line with local and national policy. The amendment would remove local discretion and severely limit the usefulness of the measure Secondly, Amendments 102C and 102E would limit the type of development suitable for a grant of permission in principle to "housing led" development. We have been consistently clear that we intend permission in principle to be limited to housing-led development and will specify this in secondary legislation. The noble Lord, Lord Beecham, referring to the DPRRC report, brought up a pertinent point and asked whether PIP could be granted for other uses. I have never sought to mislead the House, and I do not think that the noble Lord was suggesting that I was, but that we have been consistently clear that PIP is for housing-led development and that will continue to be the case under this Government. Clearly, we cannot hold future Governments to account, but we have made it clear that this is the Government’s intention. One of the DPRRC’s concerns was "What about future Governments?", but this Government are absolutely clear that this will continue to be their intention.
Housing and Planning Bill — House of Lords, 2016-04-20
Topic: Housing
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I am afraid it does not, because the amendments limit the type of development suitable for granting of permission in principle to housing-led. We intend it to be housing-led and will specify that in secondary legislation.