Speeches by Pennycook.

“Let me begin with amendment 76, tabled by the hon. Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, which seeks to remove provision for the establishment of strategic planning boards that would allow two or more authorities to produce a spatial development strategy jointly. The main purpose of strategic planning is to provide…”

“I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend. As we know, done properly, transport infrastructure and effective interventions in that regard can unlock huge numbers of homes. As I said, the Government have already taken action to support the provision of infrastructure, for example in the changes to the national planning pol…”

“Just to clarify, for Hansard more than anything, I laughed only at the shadow Minister’s delivery of the term “blanket bog”. I was not in any way questioning the importance of that type of peatland.”

“I will—”

“indicated dissent.”

“Because it was a completely arbitrary number that bore no relation to objectively assessed housing need. We have replaced it with a standard method and with targets under which city regions, as a whole, will see their targets increase by 20%, on average, compared with the previous planning period. We have increased tar…”

“With facts!”

“I will make a couple of points in response to the hon. Gentleman’s comments. I understand his argument, but I go back to the point that what we are doing in this clause and others in this part of the Bill is setting out a framework for spatial development strategies for cross-boundary strategic planning. National plann…”

“Not legislation, necessarily.”

“An important point to make is that, through the revised standard method for assessing housing need and the housing targets that flow from that, we are asking local authorities to do more to meet the housing crisis. We expect more social and affordable homes to come through under section 106 agreements. I take issue, ge…”

“Let me take each of the amendments in turn, beginning with amendment 88. I fully agree that it is essential to consider and identify infrastructure needs when planning for new development, including through spatial development strategies. I do not agree, however, that amendment 88 is needed to achieve that outcome, as …”

“No, I think the hon. Gentleman is mistaken. As I have said, proposed new section 12D(4)(b), as drafted, enables spatial development strategies to describe infrastructure for both mitigation and adaptation. The Government are very clear that we need to have concern for both. As I have said, it does not need to be one or…”

“I hope that the hon. Gentleman will forgive me, but I am not going to provide the Committee with a running commentary on the Government’s internal deliberations in response to the OEP’s letter. I will not do that today. I totally understand why hon. Members are trying to draw me on the point, but I am not going to do t…”

“Clause 53 moves us from the content of environmental delivery plans to the procedure and process for how Natural England should approach the preparation of them. The Bill requires that Natural England notify the Secretary of State when it decides to prepare an environmental delivery plan, and must publish that notifica…”

“On that I point, as I have said, the Bill sets out that SDSs “must be designed to secure that the use and development of land in the strategy area contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change.” We could spend many hours debating the implications of “and”, “or”, “may” or “must”—I have spent many an…”

“In introducing the nature restoration fund, we have been clear that the new approach will be expert-led and ecologically sound. The Government recognise that environmental delivery plans will play an important role in reframing the relationship between development and the environment. It is therefore essential that the…”

“I beg to move amendment 97, in clause 55, page 88, line 6, leave out from “if” to “on” in line 8 and insert— “, by the EDP end date, the conservation measures are likely to be sufficient to outweigh the negative effect of the EDP development”. This amendment makes it clear that the “overall improvement test” (required …”

“The Government have been consistently clear—from when we published the Bill and beforehand, in consulting on the general approach—that the nature restoration fund is not simply about streamlining how environmental obligations are discharged, but about using funds more effectively to secure better outcomes for the envir…”

“I thank members of the Committee for so eloquently outlining the intent of these amendments. I will first deal with amendments 1 and 30. I very much accept the positive intent of these proposals and would like to stress that the Government are fully committed to restoring and improving the nation’s chalk streams. As th…”

“I thank the shadow Minister for that point. We will come on to discuss our approach to development and the environment more generally when we reach part 3 of the Bill. In response to his specific question, it is probably best dealt with in the letter I will send to the Committee on this matter, where I can pull togethe…”