Clause 19
Finance Bill
11:30 am
David Gauke (Shadow Minister, Treasury; South West Hertfordshire, Conservative)
I am well aware of that.
My hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe referred to the announcement made in May 2006. Perhaps I can focus on two other announcements made by the Minister for Housing and Planning. In October 2006, she announced 45 new developments as part of the new growth points programme. She described it as
“a significant opportunity for the new communities to become exemplars of sustainability by pioneering eco-development and encapsulating high design standards in parallel with meeting the housing needs of local communities.”
Perhaps that work might be useful in assisting the Chancellor in his exciting, new and wholly original proposals that he announced at the weekend. Perhaps even more relevant would be the announcement made in March this year about new towns. As the Minister said:
“Now is the time for us to look at new eco-towns”.
As a £2 million fund was also announced for the purposes of these new eco-towns in March, will the Chancellor be making use of that fund for his new proposals?
The appointment of David Lock, chair of the Town and Country Planning Association, was also announced; he will report to the Government on further developing the criteria for eco-towns. Will Professor Lock’s report be used for the Chancellor’s new proposals? If the£2 million fund and Professor Lock’s report will indeed be used for those purposes, it may well increase the chance of those five new eco-towns being developed before October 2012, but it might bring into question just how poor the original proposals were.
My hon. Friend the Member for Braintree alluded to an important point, which is that the Treasury tends to propose exemptions in order to encourage particular behaviour. However, if that behaviour is actually carried out on a much greater scale, that exemption and encouragement tends to be withdrawn. The home computing initiative to which my hon. Friend referred was a good example.
We know that, within the provisions of the clause, the Treasury has the opportunity to extend the stamp duty land tax relief available for zero-carbon homes. Does the Economic Secretary have any criteria in mind that might be used in deciding whether to do so? Given that, by 2016, as we have heard, all new homes are supposed to be zero-carbon, if there are, in fact, many developments by 2012 would it indicate to the Treasury that the relief is successful and should therefore be continued, or would it then constitute too great a cost to the Exchequer and be withdrawn? Conversely, if it is little used—and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Windsor pointed out, there are such indications—would that be an argument for abandoning the relief, because it proves to be useless, or for maintaining it? I am conscious that the Economic Secretary cannot bind his successors and that, by the time that we come to make this decision, I shall perhaps be referring my questions to those sitting on my Front Bench rather than to this Government. None the less, I should be grateful for an indication of what the criteria will be.
Finally, as this relief will apply only to properties of less than £500,000, if house prices continue to grow substantially in the years ahead, a home of £500,000 might not be that exceptional by 2012. Indeed, in some parts of the south-east of England, it is already not that exceptional a price. Would the Government then look at reviewing the figure of £500,000, as that may preclude a lot of new properties by 2012?