communities and local government committee

Fiona Bruce Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Betts]

The hon. Gentleman’s comments show that even when authorities make genuine attempts to co-operate, it does not always result in sweetness and light. We also identified a problem with the relationship between neighbourhood plans and local plans. That needs to be clarified because there is a lot of concern—particularly when a neighbourhood plan comes before a local plan—that there can be misunderstandings about the relative status of the two.

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

May I congratulate the Committee on an excellent report? Suspension of the local plan for Cheshire East council, covering my constituency, is causing untold concern in areas such as Congleton, Sandbach and Alsager, despite a huge of volume of work by Cheshire East council. I therefore thank the Committee for highlighting many points, including the need for clarification of what sustainable development actually means, the need to facilitate partial adoption, and the inclusion of housing consents in planning numbers, which would go a long way to help my council in finalising its plan.

In the meantime, while the Minister considers those points, will the Chair of the Committee join me in asking Ministers to speed up the process for the formulation of neighbourhood plans? No fewer than 14 such plans are now in train in the Cheshire East area, but these are small communities. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that there should be a clear, quick process, free of bureaucracy and with the appropriate resources and support, so that the plans can finalised in early course?

[Mr Betts]

There is widespread support for the concept of neighbourhood plans, but there is some concern that poorer communities may not be able to adopt the process as easily as more affluent ones. That goes back to the issue of the relative status of neighbourhood and local plans if, for example, 14 neighbourhood plans are being developed but there is no local plan.

We think that the definition of sustainable development in the NPPF is a good one—it draws on Brundtland and on the five principles—and we do not want to change it. The problem is that the definition goes on to say that sustainable development is defined by everything in the NPPF, and we thought that that rather circular argument was unnecessary.