Greg Clark
Main Page: Greg Clark (Conservative - Tunbridge Wells)
Elizabeth Truss (South West Norfolk) (Con)
7. What recent assessment he has made of the level of protection afforded to high-value agricultural land in his proposed planning reforms.
The Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)
The draft national planning policy framework contains strong protections to safeguard high-value agricultural land and recognises the importance of food production. We are now carefully considering the responses to the consultation.
Elizabeth Truss
Food and farming are vital to tourism and exports in Norfolk, and its produce is very high quality, as the Secretary of State found out when he visited the Norfolk food festival in Parliament earlier this month. Does the Minister agree that the planning framework should take into account the long-term value of agriculture, as once farmland is lost it is very hard to get back?
Greg Clark
My hon. Friend is absolutely right—and when I was talking to the Secretary of State earlier, he extolled the virtues of the pies available at the Norfolk food festival. We must take into account the long-term value of food security as well as the short and medium-term economic benefits of food production.
Matthew Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)
9. What steps he is taking to help local authorities reduce the cost of their property.
Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)
10. What recent representations he has received from environmental organisations on the national planning policy framework.
The Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)
I have received several representations from environmental organisations on the draft national planning policy framework, and we are now considering our response to them.
Kerry McCarthy
That was a short, and not particularly sweet, reply. As I am sure the Minister knows, the wildlife trusts are calling for local wildlife sites and nature improvement areas to be included in the national planning framework, in order to protect wildlife against developers and to give councils more strategic guidance on improving local ecological networks. Will the Minister explain why such locations are not included in the framework?
Greg Clark
I have been having some very constructive discussions with the wildlife trusts, in which they have made precisely that point. The hon. Lady will understand that I cannot pre-empt the outcome of the consultation, but I can say that we have heard their perfectly reasonable representations and have listened very carefully.
Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)
There has been considerable outcry about the presumption in favour of development in the new framework, but is it not correct that there has been such a presumption in our planning framework for the past 40 years?
Greg Clark
My hon. Friend is right, but the presumption in the draft framework is in favour of sustainable development and it is very important that development that would damage the future environment and social aspects of our towns, cities and countryside does not go ahead.
Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)
As the Minister will be aware, many environmental organisations, ranging from the Campaign to Protect Rural England to English Heritage and to the National Trust—which might be better known to the Minister as left-wing nihilists—have raised a storm of protest about the Government’s planning proposals. Are their fears about the future protection of the environment likely to be allayed by the revelation that Treasury officials were much more involved in writing the national policy framework than were environmental planners?
Greg Clark
First, may I welcome the hon. Lady to the Dispatch Box? It is good to have her serving on the Opposition Front-Bench team, as she has a long-standing interest in environmental and social matters. I am happy to correct the report to which she refers, however, which I think was based on a series of written parliamentary answers. I can assure her that a wide range of officials from many Departments participated, including from my Department and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. That report was therefore incorrect.
Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)
11. How many bids to participate in the affordable rent scheme have been received to date.
Karen Lumley (Redditch) (Con)
20. What steps he is taking to protect green belt land.
The Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)
The draft national planning policy framework is unequivocal in continuing the protection of the green belt. By abolishing the previous Government’s regional spatial strategies, we are removing the top-down pressure on councils to take away the green belt in 30 areas across England.
Karen Lumley
My constituents in Hanbury, a small village near Redditch, are facing a proposed development of over 400 homes, which would considerably change the nature of the village. Will my right hon. Friend reassure me that their rights will be protected under the framework and that due consideration will be given to their concerns?
Greg Clark
My hon. Friend knows that I cannot comment on the particular situation to which she refers, but she should be reassured about the new powers set out in the framework. The Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill), quoted from the legal bible on planning, the planning encyclopaedia. It states, “The most impressive of the sections in the NPPF is that on the green belt.” As a précis of PPG, it states that, “it could not be bettered, in particular in respect to inappropriate development. It would certainly be inconsistent with the policies herein contained for there to be any significant encroachment of built development on the green belt.”
Lorraine Fullbrook (South Ribble) (Con)
21. What plans he has to increase the powers of local authorities to deal with unauthorised development.
Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con)
T7. Southend council is facing a sensitive planning application to build a hospice on green belt land. What reassurance can my right hon. Friend give to local residents that that would not create a precedent for more building on the green belt?
The Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Greg Clark)
My hon. Friend knows that I cannot comment on that particular application, for reasons that he understands, but I think it has been clear from our exchanges today that our determination is to protect the green belt through the national planning policy framework, and to take away the threats that are placed on local councils to remove it.
Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con)
Time and again, my constituents complain about the effects of garden-grabbing on the character of local neighbourhoods. Will my hon. Friend assure me and the House that planning reforms will protect residential gardens, and stop inappropriate development in future?
Greg Clark
I certainly will. We have already changed the definition of brownfield sites so that gardens are not included and no local authority is obliged to build on gardens if it does not want to.
Mr Iain Wright (Hartlepool) (Lab)
How many jobs and businesses will be created as a result of the enterprise zone being set up on Teesside?
Greg Clark
The right hon. Lady rightly takes up the cause of her constituents, as do other Members across the country. We are taking this very seriously, and we will have more to say about it during the weeks ahead.
Mr Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)
Does the Minister with responsibility for localism believe that Government, and indeed local government, websites can provide an invaluable way of allowing ordinary people to express their point of view? If 100,000 people were to express a point of view, does he think that they should be listened to? A simple yes will suffice.