Mark Lazarowicz (Edinburgh, North and Leith) (Lab/Co-op):
My hon. Friend is making an interesting contribution. As he will know, the world heritage site in my constituency is a living, urban heritage site, with several thousand people living in it. One of the issues that we face is how to maintain a vibrant urban centre when there are pressures from many directions, such as the pressures on small shops and smaller shopping centres, and the effects of that pressure. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important to consider how urban heritage sites are affected by wider trends in the retail and shopping markets and in planning policy? To put it bluntly, the viability of the heritage site in my constituency would be affected if the local community were to run down because of pressures on the local shopping and retail centres; that would undermine the entire living nature of that heritage site.

David Wright :
My hon. Friend makes his point very well. It is important to bear in mind what we might term global factors, such as changing retail markets, in thinking about management plans for world heritage sites.

In world heritage site management, it is important that we do not stop the development, change and evolution of sites in urban environments, such as my hon. Friend's and mine. We do not want to preserve them totally; we want to ensure that their key elements are preserved, and their key spirit, but we should not turn down all development or stop all retail growth or change. We should respond in a way that is in keeping with the spirit of the management plan and the spirit of world heritage. Many urban world heritage sites are not static communities; they are living communities where people want to go shopping and earn a living—where people live. It is important that we understand that in our management of world heritage sites.

I am conscious that several Members want to speak, but I wish to make a fifth and final point; it is about specific development threats, and it fits in particularly well with my hon. Friend's comment. In planning world heritage site environments in both rural and urban areas, it is important that we consider the scale, scope, quality and design of new buildings. I understand that Cologne in Germany was put on the world heritage at risk register in 2004 because of approvals given for high buildings outside the buffer zone, more than 1 km from the cathedral, which is inscribed. I would hate similar situations to arise, where buildings are developed around world heritage sites that detract from those sites. We must manage planning processes extremely carefully.

Mark Lazarowicz :
On that point, may I offer an example? One of the issues in the world heritage site of Edinburgh new town in my constituency is the need for affordable housing. Affordable housing that meets the high standards - it is correct that they should be so - in that site tends to cost a lot more than affordable housing in other parts of the community. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is therefore important that local, devolved and central Government should be prepared to pay extra to ensure that where there are vibrant communities, we can have affordable housing for a range of people? If that costs more because the housing has to meet the higher standards required for world heritage sites, so be it, because that cost has to be met.

David Wright :
As Parliamentary Private Secretary to a Minister in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, I must be careful about what I say; I notice that my hon. Friend the Minister is looking at me with that thought in mind. However, I agree that it is important to promote high-quality design in development. I worked in the housing sector for 13 years, and I think that it is possible to secure very high-quality buildings that are fit for purpose through existing regimes, by acting creatively and addressing quality—and, occasionally perhaps, by pushing at the cost boundaries.

14th December 2005, Column 463-4 Westminster Hall