Greenbelt: Local Plans

Dean Russell Excerpts

Tuesday 19th October 2021 Westminster Hall

[Dean Russell (Watford) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered inclusion of greenbelt land in local plans.

It is my absolute pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I applied for this debate as a number of my constituents quite rightly have written and spoken to me over recent months with concerns about potential building on green belt, in particular in the ward of Carpenders Park. Although it is my understanding that as a Member of Parliament I am not allowed to interfere in the planning process, nor do I have any control over housing targets or a planning authority’s local plan, I would like to confirm that with the Minister today. I have several questions, and some context to those questions, as we go through, to see whether there is anything I can do as the Member of Parliament to ensure that green belt in Carpenders Park is not included in the local plan.

I would be grateful to the Minister if he could confirm that that is indeed the case. I must say I am deeply concerned by the inclusion of green belt in the local plan during the recent consultation process. As the MP for Watford, I am acutely aware of where we are situated: we are not in London, but we are inside the M25, and the ever-growing expansion of the capital over decades has rightly led to Government intervention to protect our local green spaces and our great town from being swallowed up in the metropolis.

My constituency covers two distinct local authorities, Watford Borough Council and Three Rivers District Council, and it is the latter that I will focus on today. Within Three Rivers we find Carpenders Park; I invite the Minister to visit at some point, and he will see it is a wonderful part of my constituency, with beautiful open green spaces. However, most at the heart of the community are the people. I have had the luxury of witnessing over the past two years how the community comes together and works together. In particular, in this instance I will illustrate that with the work the community has done to protect its green space in the face of the local plan inclusion.

I have had the opportunity to meet local residents, most recently in a community meeting organised by Councillors David Coltman, Donna Duncan and Shanti Maru and others, where I was able to speak to them about their concerns about the green belt and the local plan consultation. In addition, I went to a meeting with a campaign group set up in response to the local plan consultation, which included Rue Grewel, Terry Voss, Ketul Patel, Lester Wagman, Ross King and Jack Eliades, and Pandora Melly, who was unfortunately unable to attend on that night.

Since then, Rue, Terry and Lester have set up their own campaign group, which is called “Can’t Replace Green Space”. I do not think anyone could get more on the nose than that statement. Going out through old-fashioned engagement they have knocked on doors, spoken to people, helped them to fill out the consultations and done an enormous amount of work to encourage local residents to respond to the local consultation.

We have seen an incredible response, with thousands on thousands of signatures of people saying, quite rightly, that they do not want that patch of their area to be built on with housing. I should note that this is not about nimbyism; the campaigners have incredibly powerful reasons why the area should not be included. There are potential brownfield sites that could be built on in other areas, so looking at this area is not a last resort.

In my efforts to understand whether I as a local Member of Parliament can do anything to stop the inclusion, I have spent many hours researching local planning rules extensively—more than I am expected to understand as an MP. I hope Members will bear with me as I share these points. As I understand it—I would appreciate confirmation of this—the national planning policy framework provides the framework against which local planning authorities draw up their local plans and determine applications for planning permission. Chapter 13 of the framework, the NPPF, deals specifically with protecting green-belt land and it states clearly that established green-belt boundaries should be changed only

“where exceptional circumstances are fully evidenced and justified”.

The NPPF is also clear that inappropriate development that is harmful to the green belt should also only be approved “in very special circumstances”.

Paragraph 141 states:

“Before concluding that exceptional circumstances exist to justify changes to Green Belt boundaries, the…authority should be able to demonstrate that it has examined fully all other reasonable options for meeting its identified need for development.”

I fully understand residents’ concerns that Three Rivers has not yet been able to demonstrate that in its local plan consultation. Paragraph 149 also lists exceptions where building on the green belt will not be considered inappropriate.

Since being elected I have raised multiple times in private meetings with the former Secretary of State and the current Housing Minister my concerns about over-development across Watford in general, particularly about tall towers, but given that this debate is about the green belt I will not cover those right now. In the Chamber a few months ago I asked whether it is the case that housing target needs are not set in stone and that they are a starting point for negotiation. Will the Minister confirm whether that is still the case, and that a planning inspector can accept a lower housing need target for the green belt to be protected if a local plan sets out clear criteria and presents a credible and reasonable alternative? I have seen articles recently in my local area saying that no local authority can challenge the housing need set by the standard method for assessing housing need. However, if the local plan is the starting point for determining the planning process, it would be most appropriate to use that as a mechanism to challenge the standard method in order to protect our precious green belt. It is possible, in my view.

Indeed, House of Commons Library research has concluded that the inspector can challenge local authorities on their desire to build on green-belt land, where they fail to challenge the housing need in the local plan. I found many examples, but these two come to mind. In Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, where 77% of the borough is found within the South Yorkshire green belt—similar to Three Rivers, where 76% of the district is classified as green belt—the planning inspector found that exceptional circumstances did not exist to justify altering the green-belt boundary, which highlights the importance of local authorities considering adjusting the boundary only as a last resort. That was also the case for Rugby Borough Council, where the inspector found that green-belt expansion would

“breach the existing strong, clearly defined boundary which would cause significant harm to the purpose of the Green Belt in this location.”

At this point I want to clarify that I am not attempting to do point-scoring politics. This is not about me trying to challenge the council to be difficult—to do political point scoring or get into a blame game. I want to be supportive and for the debate to help support it as regards removing the green belt from Carpenders Park. I want to highlight that this issue is about local people having a say in their local area, and through the process of consultation making sure that their voices are heard. I hope today’s debate will enable that even further.

I have also raised the challenge that engagement for the local plan absolutely has to come from people putting in petitions as well as individual comments. One thing that I have found—I do not know whether it is a Government or a local policy, so perhaps we will get clarity—is that thousands of people sign a petition, but that is accepted only as a single entry in a consultation, rather than as representing the thousands of signatories.

I have chatted with Alex Hayward, the leader of the Conservatives—not currently in control—on Three Rivers District Council. She confirmed that she would remove the area of green belt from the plan, so there is not a lack of political will to do so. Something that has been covered so much in the mainstream press and locally, which I will not going into detail on, is the charge that the Government are inflicting national targets on local areas, causing the green belt to be at risk. Until recently I could see that argument. In their manifesto, the Conservatives had a target of 300,000 new homes; I believe Labour had 1 million over the Parliament and the Liberal Democrats had a target of 300,000. However, I am led to believe that at the recent Lib Dem conference they voted to increase the national housebuilding target to 380,000 a year. I doubt that that political argument holds weight any more, given the fact that the parties have all increased the house building target. I do not want to get into that political battle, other than to say it is important that local residents are heard, irrespective of the national politicking that goes on.

Could the Minister confirm that the planning White Paper is just that—a White Paper? There are press reports that a Bill is passing through Parliament, with various announcements, leaflets and press coverage about what that Bill includes. Actually, nothing has gone through Parliament yet. Anything talking about the planning Bill is not factual, and the White Paper is just the White Paper. Therefore, it is not yet in the public realm what that might include. I would be grateful if the Minister could set out the reasons why the 2014-based household projections continue to be used seven years later to determine housing need according to the standard method, and whether that is likely to change? Residents have raised that issue with me.

Above all, I am keen to stand up for residents in my constituency and for our green spaces. I cannot state enough how important it is to ensure that Carpenders Park remains the beautiful place and community that it is today. I want to make sure that continues for many decades to come. I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak about this incredibly important issue. The residents of Carpenders Park deserve to have their voices heard. As their MP, I have been led to believe that I cannot be involved in the planning process; however, if I am able to be, I would like the Minister to let me know. If I cannot be, I would like to do anything else I can do to help local residents. I would like answers to their valid concerns, so I can ensure that Carpenders Park continues to be the beautiful place and community that it is. I thank the Minister for his time and I look forward to any further guidance on how we can protect our local green space in Watford.