Political opinion with Jess Brown-Fuller MP: The Planning and Infrastructure Bill returns to Parliament

This week, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, a long-awaited piece of legislation, returned to the Commons for its report stage. This followed its line-by-line scrutiny by a committee of MPs from across the political spectrum (albeit heavily weighted with Labour MPs).

I’ve been actively engaged with this piece of legislation throughout its journey through Parliament. I’ve been sitting down with the Housing Minister, having regular updates from our Housing spokesperson, supporting amendments that I believed would strengthen the Bill and tabling my own amendments.

One of these amendments was to make National Landscapes, like Chichester Harbour Conservancy, a statutory consultee in the planning process. The Harbour Conservancy is unique, in that it’s a legal entity that was established through an Act of Parliament in 1971. They already employ a principal planning officer that responds to 300 planning applications a year and they have been seeking statutory consultee status since 2019. I was keen to support them, and my amendment sought to do that.

My second amendment was to ask developers to consider the function of greywater recycling on any new development. In the South East we are designated as ‘water stressed’ and greywater recycling could be the key to reducing water use. If developers installed dual piping, for example, on new builds, there would be no need for a family to rip out their bathroom to introduce greywater recycling on a small scale, as the infrastructure would already be there.

Imagine therefore my disappointment and frustration when I was not subsequently called to speak in the Planning & Infrastructure debate, after bobbing (standing up to indicate you wish to speak) for the whole debate. It is the luck of the draw and has happened before, but when it is a topic, I take such great interest in, and I know it is of great importance to my constituents, it is harder to swallow.

But I am not deterred. I have written to the Minister further outlining my amendments and encouraging him to consider adding them to the Bill. I will also seek to find other opportunities to make these changes via other pieces of legislation.

As for the Bill as a whole, I will not be supporting it at Third Reading. It does nothing to hold developers further to account, it sets no legally mandated target for social homes, it does not ensure infrastructure is built before development and it prioritises building over the environment at every stage.