Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Skidmore Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Prisk]

There is a far better way of doing that. The £10 million high street innovation fund is deliberately designed to bring empty homes back into use. That is what a number of local authorities are doing. I am afraid that wanting yet more taxes is the sort of knee-jerk reaction that we can expect from the Labour party.

[Chris Skidmore (Kingswood) (Con)]

3. What plans he has to increase the powers of local authorities to tackle unauthorised development.

[Andrew Griffiths (Burton) (Con)]

19. What plans he has to increase the powers of local authorities to tackle unauthorised development.

[The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)]

The Government take the problem of unauthorised development very seriously. In August, I issued new guidance to local authorities that set out the strong powers councils and landlords have to remove illegal and unauthorised encampments, such as Traveller sites, protest camps and squatter sites, from both public and private land. Provisions in the Localism Act 2011 that came into force on 6 April this year have strengthened councils’ powers to tackle unauthorised development.

[Chris Skidmore]

I welcome the Government’s stance on unauthorised development, which will help to strengthen the protection of areas such as the Kingswood green belt, after Labour’s regional spatial strategy aimed to build 10,000 houses on it. Will the Minister confirm that the Government will honour their commitment, as set out in the national planning policy framework, to protect and preserve the Kingswood green belt, and assure my constituents that the green belt is safe?

[Mr Pickles]

We strengthened the green belt provisions regarding unauthorised development when we issued the changes to the Travellers guidance. I can assure my hon. Friend that we regard the buffer between Bristol and Bath as extremely important, which is also how we regard the co-operation between authorities to ensure adequate housing provision.