Levelling Up

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 20th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jacob Young]

The right hon. Member talks about the processes that are owned by my Department. As I said, we are embarking on this ambitious funding simplification agenda purely on the basis of some of the points that he has raised. Local authorities, Members of this House and the Select Committee were concerned about the number of competitions that were involved in various Government funds. We are addressing that through our funding simplification doctrine.

The right hon. Gentleman talks about Durham. I simply say to him that the international territorial level region for the Tees Valley in Durham has received eight projects across the rounds of the levelling-up fund. That equates to £128 per capita in the region, which is one of the highest amounts. I would ask him to welcome that.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

Bolton is opening its new £40 million Institute of Medical Sciences, which followed an earlier £50 million levelling-up fund investment. Will my hon. Friend confirm that the latest £20 million of funding for Bolton town centre, for which I am very grateful, is not the end of his commitment to the people of Bolton?

[Jacob Young]

It could not be the end of the levelling-up commitment in Bolton, because of the efforts of my hon. Friend, who works so hard for his constituents. I am delighted that Bolton is receiving money in this round, and I will work with him to ensure that levelling up continues in his part of the world.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 20th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

Does the Minister share my concern about the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s proposals for a workplace parking levy? It is a tax on business, jobs and families, is it not?

[Dehenna Davison]

My hon. Friend is a great champion for his community and I would be happy to meet him to discuss this policy further.

Called-in Planning Decision: West Cumbria

Chris Green Excerpts

Thursday 8th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

I appreciate the hon. Lady’s position. If she will forgive me, I shall not be drawn into the question of Executive formation in Northern Ireland. I know everybody wants to make sure we can make progress there and I take into account the importance she rightly places on devolved decision making; that is an aspiration I share.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

The Opposition have no concern over European and other countries burning lignite to power their industries and rarely distinguish between thermal and metallurgical coal. Will my right hon. Friend renew his commitment to evidence-based policymaking and the ongoing revival of British mining and manufacturing?

[Michael Gove]

Again, the 350-page report looks at all the evidence and the competing arguments before coming to that conclusion. I know my hon. Friend, like many colleagues, looked closely at that report before coming to his own judgment, and I urge all colleagues across this House to do so.

Levelling-up Agenda in the North

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 13th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government (Luke Hall)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) on securing this important debate. He has highlighted a number of issues that I agree are of utmost importance to the north and his constituents. I also thank other hon. Members for their interventions. I am pleased to have the chance to talk about our levelling-up agenda and specifically about levelling up in the north of England. It is a goal that is shared by the hon. Member for Wansbeck, me, everyone across the Government and, I am sure, everyone across the House.

Levelling up means ensuring that opportunity is spread more evenly across the country and that investment is targeted more fairly, so that we can build a fairer, stronger and more united kingdom after this pandemic. Tackling the regional imbalances and inequality that the hon. Gentleman spoke about is at the heart of this Government’s manifesto and what we are trying to achieve.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

My hon. Friend has touched on the important issue of rebalancing inequalities. Transport and the regeneration of our town centres are key to this. I therefore thank the Government for the electrification plans between Bolton and Wigan and for their huge commitment to Bolton’s towns fund.

Planning Decisions: Local Involvement

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 21st June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell). She captured some of the concerns that my constituents, and I am sure those of colleagues around the country, have, in terms of having the house building, yet not having yet the infrastructure and facilities that ought to go along with it. I know my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will place those concerns at the heart of what he wants to do with the Planning Bill and ensure that that is improved on. We just have to help and support him in getting there in whatever ways we see fit.

Local planning and house building is almost the No.1 issue in my constituency. In so many ways, it aggravates and grates upon my constituents, whether it is the development at Hulton Park or Horwich golf course. People campaign hard and intensively against a development, and either they see the development go ahead, or the developers come back again and again with new alternatives. It is very frustrating. It is important to get clarity and certainty over which plans can go ahead: either we get the infrastructure and other support—whether schools, GP services or roads—or the plan is vetoed, so we have that certainty for local residents.

I welcome the Government’s strong agenda to develop and focus on brownfield sites, and the commitment of £75 million to Greater Manchester to focus on and get brownfield development first. David Greenhalgh, leader of Bolton Council, has done much to ensure that development in Bolton happens on brownfield sites first. The system does not always lend itself to his championing that cause, but he is leading the way. I welcome the commitment made by the Secretary of State’s predecessor to a spine road on Horwich Loco Works to enable building on brownfield sites. That is the kind of development we want to see and that the Government are championing and enabling.

Another problem in Greater Manchester—this was highlighted earlier—is that devolution plans for Greater Manchester to enable local leadership should have helped to deliver a plan for 10 boroughs of Greater Manchester, of which Bolton and Wigan boroughs would be two. Unfortunately, the Mayor, Andy Burnham, has not delivered on that. He vetoed the first version and did not enable it to be delivered. We are now on the third version, so it is causing a huge number of problems for many residents and it is not enabling the delivery of vital infrastructure. I would welcome it if the Secretary of State and the Housing Minister ensured, if the Greater Manchester spatial framework is not delivered, that the Bolton plan is.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 14th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Christopher Pincher]

I am obliged to the hon. Gentleman for his question. As I said, and as he knows, we have made significant progress in the remediation of ACM-clad buildings: 95% have either been made safe or had remediation begun on them. With respect to buildings that have had non-ACM but dangerous cladding put on, I can tell him that some 685 buildings have now been registered for the building safety fund, with £359 million of public funds allotted for their remediation. We are determined to go further and faster to make sure that people’s homes are safe and that this issue is finally and completely put to bed.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

If his Department will take steps to ensure that new housing developments are conditional on the consent of local people.

[The Minister for Housing (Christopher Pincher)]

Local plans create the local community’s vision for where essential development such as housing should go. Our planning reforms will give communities the chance to be involved meaningfully at the start when local plans are prepared and will make it easier for local people to understand proposals and express their views. This will bring certainty that housing will come forward in areas best identified for growth by the community, while ensuring that valued countryside remains protected.

[Chris Green]

Does my hon. Friend share my concerns about the Greater Manchester spatial framework, which has twice been vetoed and has not gone ahead? The absence of that plan causes a great deal of problems with uncontrolled building in the whole of Greater Manchester, but particularly for my constituents in Bolton West. Will he do all he can to support Bolton Council in adopting and implementing its plan if the GMSF’s faults cannot be rectified soon?

[Christopher Pincher]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend; he is a doughty champion of his constituents in Bolton West. He will know that rather than allowing suffering from speculative development, local plans give certainty both to developers and to communities in providing the homes that the country needs, and where agreed. It is essential that we get local plans in place to help to put our economy back on track; I am pleased that he recognises that. As he says, Bolton Council, along with eight other Greater Manchester councils, is committed to taking forward the Places for Everyone joint local plan. I will continue to monitor and support the progress of plan making across Greater Manchester to ensure that plan coverage is achieved by the end of 2023 and that my hon. Friend’s constituents in Bolton are best protected.

Unsafe Cladding: Protecting Tenants and Leaseholders

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 1st February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

Happy Birthday, Madam Deputy Speaker. I welcome my hon. Friend the Housing Minister to his place. He is right to point out that the current problem has built up over many decades, and he is also right to decide to resolve the problem once and for all.

Bolton at Home, which serves many of my constituents, has raised concerns with me, ranging from the status of fire doors to fire risk assessments. That indicates how much more work needs to be done on this issue. My hon. Friend the Father of the House comprehensively set out the parties that must be led or forced by the Government to act. He was right to say that it would be better not to divide the House on this motion, but instead use this debate to have the Government take note and take action.

I support the amendment to the Fire Safety Bill in the names of my hon. Friends the Members for Southampton, Itchen (Royston Smith) and for Stevenage (Stephen McPartland). I urge the Government to build upon it if they do not think it is suitable, in order to deliver certainty and safety for my constituents and many others around the country. People ought not to think that this applies just to huge tower blocks; it applies to a huge range of other buildings too.

The Grenfell Tower events were horrific, but they were nearly repeated on 15 November 2019, when The Cube burned down in Bolton. The student accommodation caught fire and became an inferno within minutes. If it were 4 o’clock in the morning, rather than 8.30 in the evening, we do not know how many deaths there would have been. Would it have been Grenfell mark 2? We have to act, be decisive and comprehensive in our actions, and sort this out incredibly quickly, because this is about people’s safety and physical and mental wellbeing. Many people have put their lives on hold and are waiting to move on—they may want to start a family or get a job—so we have to resolve this issue incredibly quickly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 5th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Christopher Pincher]

I am obliged to the hon. Lady. She seems to have forgotten the ambition of this Government, which has already been stated. We were the first Government in the world to legislate for net zero. She seems to have forgotten that just a few days ago, we introduced the green homes grant; 600,000 homes will benefit from that grant. She seems to have forgotten the work we have done to drive down poor energy performance certificate standards; now only 5% of homes are in the G category. We will certainly be ambitious. We will continue to work hard to build green homes for our country, and I am sure that when it comes to it and the hon. Lady stops talking, she will start to walk with us.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support high street businesses during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)]

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support high street businesses during the covid-19 outbreak.

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Robert Jenrick)]

Revitalising our towns and high streets is vital to the Government’s effort to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, supporting people’s jobs and getting businesses trading again. Last month, we provided an £80 million boost to over 100 towns from our £3.6 billion towns fund, kickstarting important local investment projects.

[Chris Green]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his answer. I also thank the Government for deciding to ease the lockdown on Bolton so that people can start using cafés, pubs and restaurants more normally. This has also had the benefit of bringing more people on to our high streets and increasing footfall. As a further step, will he consider having 10 pm as last orders to enable a safe exit from pubs and restaurants as people leave and perhaps use public transport?

[Robert Jenrick]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. The requirement for pubs and some other businesses to be closed to the general public by 10 pm was designed to strike the balance of allowing people to continue to socialise while reducing social contact and minimising negative impacts on the economy. He will know that we do not take these decisions lightly. None of us would want that to continue a day longer than is necessary, and as with all measures, we will keep them under constant review.

Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Green Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Laura Farris (Newbury) (Con)]

What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to support the wedding sector during the covid-19 outbreak.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

What plans he has to reopen places of worship as the covid-19 restrictions are eased.

[Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Con)]

What plans he has to reopen places of worship as the covid-19 restrictions are eased.

--- Later in debate ---

[Robert Jenrick]

I fully appreciate the concerns that my hon. Friend raises. I know how important weddings are for venues and, of course, how many people’s plans have been disrupted. I can tell her that there is a significant effort across Government to allow people to hold weddings—in particular, small ones with appropriate social distancing—as soon as we can, but this must be done safely. My right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor and I are working with faith leaders on this issue, and in the meantime, venues such as Wasing Park can avail themselves of the job retention scheme, the business rates holiday and the small business grants to help them get through the coming weeks.

[Chris Green]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that reopening churches and other places of worship is an incredibly important step in the right direction for our spiritual welfare across the country and symbolises the direction of travel, with the country returning to normality?

[Robert Jenrick]

I fully agree with my hon. Friend. People of faith have shown enormous patience and forbearance in recent weeks, unable to mark Easter, Passover, Vaisakhi and Ramadan with their family, friends and community in the traditional way. As we control the virus, we are able to move forward, and as we reopen our economy, it is right that the importance of faith and places of worship is recognised.

Greater Manchester Spatial Framework and the Green Belt

Chris Green Excerpts

Wednesday 18th March 2020 Westminster Hall

[James Daly]

I am sure the Minister will comment on the hon. Lady’s intervention when rounding up.

Given the drive to regenerate our town centres—through building beautiful, affordable homes more densely, in part—it is clear that the green belt in towns such as Bury is being sacrificed unnecessarily. The local environment of the residents of Tottington and Walshaw, and in the vicinity of Elton reservoir, is being decimated because the local council is a signatory of a planning document that is not fit for purpose. It has no plan to take advantage of the funding opportunities provided by this Government to reclaim and build truly affordable houses on brownfield sites.

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

I appreciate the support given by the Government for the development on brownfield sites, but does my hon. Friend share my concern that the plan, the GMSF mark 2, was only to be published for public consultation and public challenge after the local elections? People would not have been able to judge councillors, local authorities and the Mayor on what they are proposing. Even though we want local democracy, this is hardly a good example of it.

[James Daly]

My hon. Friend speaks powerfully, and I agree with every point he made.

One of the great faults of the GMSF is that it does not require local authorities to be proactive or innovative in their planning policy. Instead, it allows them to go for the easy option of allowing developers to build three, four and five-bedroom houses all over the green belt—houses that will be totally unaffordable to the vast majority of my constituents.

[James Daly]

I agree with every word of my hon. Friend’s powerful point, which I am sure the Minister will address.

The proposals to build on the green belt come despite the Government’s alterations to the national planning policy framework, which have strengthened green belt protections. Why are local authorities such as Bury Council determined to build on the green belt rather than work innovatively to regenerate brownfield sites and provide truly affordable homes, by which I mean houses and flats with a value of less than £100,000? I believe that they are simply taking the easy option.

The defence to that charge by those who support the GMSF is that the Government are forcing them to build a certain number of homes in line with national guidance, and that to do so they must encroach on the green belt in Bury and elsewhere. That question was put to the Minister in a Westminster Hall debate the week before last, and has been put to Housing Ministers before him. Will the Minister confirm that councils are not mandated to build definitively the number of homes required under 2014 population projection figures? Those figures should be the starting point. Local authorities should conduct their own assessment of the number of homes that need to be built over the length of a local plan, and those homes should be affordable and in the places that people need them.

[Chris Green]

There is concern that as GMSF mark 1 was torn up, GMSF mark 2 will also be rejected—the Mayor of Greater Manchester should do that—so we will be in limbo. Local authorities should be respected and valued, as should their determination of what their communities need. The planners and developers should follow what the local authority wants.

[James Daly]

My hon. Friend speaks very powerfully on this issue and I agree with every word that he said.

I also bring to the Minister’s attention the fact that 2016 Office for National Statistics population forecast figures revised down Bury’s population by 43%, and recently released 2018 provisional figures show a further fall of 13%. On the basis of recent population projections, no homes would have to be built on the green belt in my constituency. Will the Minister confirm whether the Government will review the use of projections published six years ago?