Estates Gazette Q&A
Eric Pickles, secretary of state for Communities and Local Government
Of the policies that you have had involvement with, which are you most proud of?
I think the Localism Act is a landmark piece of law whose effects are only just starting to be felt. The general power of competence is untapped in many councils but will have a significant long-term effect, and community rights such as neighbourhood planning and assets of community value are gaining momentum across the country.
What are your biggest regrets?
I underestimated the sheer volume of domestic legislation and regulation that stems from the European Union. About half of all our laws are influenced in some way by the EU. For example, there are 18 different directives affecting the planning system, even though the European Union has no direct competence in land use planning. It took three years to abolish Labour’s regional strategies because of just one of those directives. The European Union is the biggest threat to localism – it sucks power upwards with minimal accountability.
What would you have done differently if your party had won a majority?
My department has delivered essentially Conservative policies since 2010, and I have had a good constructive working relationship with Liberal Democrat ministers in my department. But we have some unfinished business that we have haven’t resolved in this parliament – namely, the further extension of the office-to-residential planning reforms, and the issuing of stronger planning policies on traveller sites.
Do you have faith that enough has been put in place to address the housing crisis?
House building plummeted during Labour’s housing crash, and a lot of housing capacity was effectively destroyed – from construction skills to brickmaking. But house building is now at its highest since 2007, and the volume of all new housing construction orders has more than doubled since the first quarter of 2009. There’s more to do, yet the signals are good. For example, 253,000 homes received planning permission in England last year.
We will be continuing to support housing construction across all sectors – social, private rented, small builders, volume builders and self-builders. There’s no one magic bullet – but the Conservatives will ensure stability, proportionate regulation and economic confidence to help the housing industry build more homes.
At what point would you concede that green belt land needs to be relinquished?
We have intentionally safeguarded national green belt protection, and we intend to continue to do so. It provides for an important protection against urban sprawl. It is for local plans now to spell out where development should and shouldn’t go – to provide certainty for local residents and for developers. National planning policy does allow for brownfield development in the green belt, provided it doesn’t harm the openness of the countryside.
With further cuts on the way how do you expect planning departments to cope?
Even with the savings that have been made to date to help pay off Labour’s deficit, local government expects to spend more than £115bn a year. Net current expenditure by councils – excluding education due to the shift to direct funding of academies – has risen in cash terms under this government.
Councils need to continue to drive savings and improve outcomes by more joint working and integration between local public services. Councils also need to embrace enterprise and growth. Reforms such as the New Homes Bonus, the local retention of business rates and the localisation of council tax benefit mean that councils that support jobs and local firms will be rewarded from the proceeds of growth.
What is your response to the claim that Right to Bbuy will result in longer waiting times and fewer options for people looking for housing association homes?
There is already a Preserved Right to Buy and a Right to Acquire for housing associations. Conservative proposals now seek to extend these well-established policies. We will put in place measures to ensure housing associations are compensated, that replacement affordable homes are constructed, and we will ensure that housing associations’ access to private finance is safeguarded. The Right to Buy reduces waiting lists, as social tenants become home owners, and new-build homes are provided for social tenants who weren’t otherwise housed.
Have you given up on garden cities?
The last Labour government promised ten eco-towns, but their top-down process built nothing but resentment. We have been very clear that we are in favour of locally-led large-scale development, and we have delivered real progress in the likes of Ebbsfleet, Northstowe and Bicester – schemes that went nowhere under Labour. And our large-scale development programme and housing zones schemes will unlock a lot more sites. What we aren’t doing is picking a random number out of thin air, or applying a coat of greenwash by slapping the words “garden city” or “eco-town” on controversial, unpopular schemes.
What are the limits of devolution?
There’s a difference between devolution and decentralisation. In Scotland and Wales, the devolved administrations have actually centralised power, taking it away from local councils. In Labour-run Wales, there are no equivalent Localism Act community rights, there is no neighbourhood planning.
Conservatives want to go further and deeper with the localist reforms that have taken place in England during this parliament. This will include delivering more bespoke growth deals with local councils, including metropolitan mayors where locally supported, and working with local enterprise partnerships and councils to promote jobs and growth. We believe that the Westminster parliament is, and should remain, England’s law-making body.
But localism must not be a way of imposing new taxes. The English taxpayer already pays too much tax. Instead, we wish to strengthen the fiscal incentives that councils have to support enterprise and growth – for example, by further extending the local retention of business rates to two-thirds of all revenue.
What are your biggest concerns about Labour coming to power, in terms of the property sector?
Labour want more red tape and higher taxes on the property industry, which will ultimately cut house building and drive up rents for tenants. Rent controls will kill off the growing Build to Rent institutional investment in the sector. A tax on planning permissions will just discourage developers from applying for permission in the first place and hinder complex regeneration schemes. Re-imposing Section 106 tariffs on small builders will force them out of the market. Just look to Labour-run Wales, where an average new home costs up to £13,000 to build than the same home in England, and where house building has tanked compared to England.
Conservatives have a long-term economic plan to ensure a brighter, more secure future. One can’t invest in frontline public services or infrastructure without a strong economy. The housing and property sectors are now in a position to directly benefit from Britain’s robust economic recovery under a Conservative government.
