Oral Answers to Questions

Alan Whitehead Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)]

1. What his policy is on the protection of green-belt land.

[Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab)]

10. What his policy is on altering green-belt boundaries.

[Mr Dominic Raab (Esher and Walton) (Con)]

14. What steps he is taking to protect the green belt.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Pickles]

For a moment I thought the hon. Gentleman was going to put that to the vote; I would have been on his side.

The Planning Inspectorate looked at Rochdale metropolitan borough council’s core strategy, and as the hon. Gentleman will know, consultation ends next Monday. It was extended to allow consideration of the proposed release of 55 hectares of green-belt land on the South Heywood development, but that has now been excluded from the core strategy. The inspector looked at the proposed removal of that area from the green belt, tested the council and found that plans for making such an exception were not sufficiently robust. If hon. Members have any doubts about the importance of the green belt, they should see the hon. Gentleman, who can testify to the policy’s stringent nature.

[Dr Whitehead]

As the Secretary of State will be aware, on 2 September the Chancellor said that local authorities should swap parts of green-belt land for other land to encourage housing development. In light of what the Secretary of State has said today, will he clear up the confusion about what is and is not green-belt land by firmly repudiating what the Chancellor said on 2 September?

[Mr Pickles]

What I have said is absolutely compatible with what the Chancellor said; there is no difference between my views and those of my right hon. Friend. We have said from the Dispatch Box that a proportion of the green belt is former brownfield land—a disused quarry, for example, or a scrap yard—and the national planning policy framework envisaged careful consideration of those boundaries. Does it not make sense to get those kinds of sites back under development, and protect and enhance the green belt?