Member

I now turn to Lords amendment 89B on prioritising brownfield sites for development. The concern that we as an Opposition are setting out clearly is that, taken alongside many of the other changes to the planning system that the Government are introducing, there is a risk that at the end of this Parliament—the end of this period—we will see a significant increase in the number of greenfield sites that have planning consent. We will not see what we all say cross-party that we want to see, which is a significant amount of our housing target being delivered on brownfield sites that are brought back into use for residential purposes. Particularly with the powers for mayors to drive forward development that the Bill brings in, it is critical that we ensure brownfield land is prioritised to manage the risk of the easy wins being prioritised over the ones that are most effective in delivering housing targets. We already see that in some mayoral authorities.