Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and Richard Graham
Grant Shapps
The right hon. Gentleman will be interested to hear that immediately that the Newham story was flagged up, we went on just one website to search for properties and we could find within the Newham cap of £15,000 rent a year—not the £21,000 maximum cap—1,000 properties available in Newham or within five miles of it. That is why it is a disgrace that the council was considering sending people halfway across the country.
Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)
T9. My right hon. Friend the cities Minister, the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, the right hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), will have noted, not least from the Centre for Cities annual report, that progress in Gloucester is encouraging on a number of fronts, including the regeneration of major sites and the expansion of our specialist training company to provide apprenticeships and skills for our thriving small and medium-sized enterprises engineering centre. Gloucester would be delighted if the Minister could visit the city to look more closely at some of our successes and our challenges.
Housing Reform
Debate between Grant Shapps and Richard Graham(12 years, 11 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Grant Shapps
The right hon. Lady has been a doughty champion for her residents, and it will not be too long before I can deliver further news.
Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con)
I welcome the Minister’s announcement, particularly on his indemnity scheme, which will stimulate the housing market in general and, more specifically, accelerate sales for the development of Kingsway in Gloucester, triggering badly needed infrastructure, such as a new surgery. Does he agree that the growing places programme is well suited to resolve section 106-related hold-ups to brownfield site developments, such as the one at the former Van Moppes chemical site on the Bristol road, which he visited with me some time ago?
Grant Shapps
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Between the growing places fund and the get Britain building cash announced today in the housing strategy, there is ample room to get some of these stalled and stuck sites, such as the one I visited in his constituency, building again.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Grant Shapps and Richard Graham
Grant Shapps
In many ways, authorities such as Rugby have led the way by being so keen to produce housing. The difference is that now every single one of our constituents gets to benefit from new homes being built. There is £200 million on the table that is being distributed today. I note that the Opposition seem to be against their own authorities receiving the money.
Richard Graham
Like my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Jason McCartney), may I ask my right hon. Friend whether more could be done, perhaps on the paperwork, in order to attract developers into constituencies such as mine, which are entirely urban and therefore have only brownfield sites to offer?
Grant Shapps
One of the changes that we have made is to enable local authorities to set their own targets for brownfield sites. I have been to my hon. Friend’s constituency and I know that there are many good sites available. Rather than housing being built on sites where the regional spatial strategy seemed to insist that it went, housing can now go where it is required. Much of that will be on the brownfield land that I went to see. That is one of the features of the Government’s policy, and of the new homes bonus in particular.