Putting people first
JEREMY CORBYN reports on the Bill that may give local communities the upper hand over big business.
AN important Bill will take its next tentative steps in Parliament on Wednesday. Its aim is to shift the balance of power away from business and give local communities a much bigger say in planning decisions.
To many, the issue of planning may not sound too exciting, but the detail of Sustainable Communities Bill is actually very interesting.
It is the third attempt at introducing this kind of legislation into the House of Commons and this Bill has more of a chance of success than previous ones because, while it is being promoted by Tory Nick Hurd, it has all-party support.
There are only two opponents on the committee that will discuss the Bill - the minister and his parliamentary private secretary.
The legislation's main aims are to promote local economic activity and employment, social inclusion, participation in civic and political activity, effective protection of the local environment and the prudent use of natural resources.
The specific powers included in the Bill cover a number of major areas.
If it becomes law, local authorities and the secretary of state would have to promote planning policies aimed at protecting or reviving local economic activity, including shop services, employment and locally based industry.
It will also have an impact on local environments. Existing legislation means that it is virtually impossible to defend "brownfield" nature reserves and disused land with flourishing natural growth. The Bill specifically requires the protection of all aspects of the local environment.
On top of this, the Bill will tackle the issue of housing, which is a major issue in cities across Britain.
In London, for example, local authorities approving new developments usually have to ensure that half the properties in major developments are "affordable."
The problem is that the use of the word "affordable" often means that people in desperate housing need, whose only access to good housing is through council housing associations, get pushed aside by developers' greed.
The proportion of social rented property in most developments is very low. In my own borough of Islington, less than 15 per cent of all housing development in the past five years has been socially rented ccommodation, none of which is for the local authority. This Bill requires that any local plans specifically aim towards decreasing the number of households affected by social exclusion and poverty.
Anyone who lives and works and represents inner-city communities will be well aware of the joy and diversity of life. But they will also be aware that a combination of high crime, traffic and inappropriate developments will force the poorest people into the worst conditions or complete social exclusion.
Participation rates in election in inner-city Britain are depressingly low. It is essential that planning for communities gives a priority to the needs of the victims of a fast-growing economy and encourages political and social activity.
At the moment, local communities only have the power to try to encourage Section 106 payments, under which developers have to invest some money in social housing or in local community facilities. Too often, this money is spent well away from the planned upmarket development and effectively encourages the export of the poor away from inner-city areas that have become the apple of property speculators' eyes.
In some ways, the Bill returns to the principle of the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, which helped to give local authorities considerable powers in retail planning and changes in the use of buildings.
In 1980, during Margaret Thatcher's most obsessive free-market phase, the Tory government introduced legislation that shifted the balance of planning power away from local government in favour of big business and huge developments.
The results can be seen across Britain today in huge out-of-town buildings housing big business retailers and supermarkets and local high streets that are just carbon copies of each other.
When a local planning authority does try to carry out the wishes of the local community to keep a mixture of shops, smaller-scale buildings and promoting local sourcing and local employment in a new development, its task is virtually impossible.
Any local planning authority that attempts to go down this road rapidly finds itself in the firing line of corporate lawyers, media propaganda and spurious arguments about modernity that are used to promote the uniformity of powerful retail chains around the country.
While this Bill is a long way from becoming law, it has at least provoked the government into producing some guidance of its own, acknowledging the grave disquiet that exists in much of the country about the way in which planning law leaves local communities powerless in the face of big business.
When the history of the late 20th and early 21st century comes to be written, one major aspect will be the increasing understanding that natural resources are finite and that a lifestyle that encourages waste of resources in unnecessary travel or unnecessary transport of goods is simply unsustainable.
In the light of this knowledge, it is essential that planning powers are tilted in favour of protecting natural resources, not just by preserving the local environment but also to ensure that developments do not encourage extra road journeys or excessively wasteful use of resources in their construction or development.
In the debate on the second reading of the Bill on January 19, Stroud Labour MP David Drew, who is a strong supporter of local communities, quite rightly made the point that public meetings about planning and development are often stormy affairs where elected representatives, be they councillors or MPs, can do very little because developers have all the power.
Power needs to come from the bottom, arising from popular demand for appropriate and sustainable development so that the multiplicity of local independent retailers, post offices and multiethnic ownership of small retail outlets can be sustained.
The soullessness of cities created by uniformity of shops and businesses is depressing. It can be reversed. While this Bill may not achieve all that must be done, it is a step in the right direction towards shifting power where it ought to be.
Jeremy Corbyn is Labour MP for Islington North. He can be contacted at corbynj@parliament.uk
