Clause 1
Planning-gain Supplement (Preparations) Bill
10:45 am
Anne Main (St Albans, Conservative)
As my hon. Friend knows, I serve on the CLG Committee, and we examined the matter. One of the Select Committee’s concerns was that the planning gain might not deliver more, and could deliver less, than section 106 money. One of the Committee’s recommendations was that the Government undertake a comparative study. They dismissed that as being too costly, but the Committee felt it vital. The open-ended approach has meant that self-assessment and the training budget for those who will investigate it have not been covered. My hon. Friend is right to suggest that we shall create an open-ended cheque book if we go down this route, because we do not know whether the proposals will deliver more infrastructure and more money in many cases, and it might well be costly to examine that.