Local Housing Need

Helen Whately Excerpts

Thursday 14th September 2017 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I will happily reaffirm the Government’s position. We remain absolutely committed to the protections that are already in the planning code. Nothing that I have announced today will change the protections that are rightly afforded to the green belt, or our demand that when it comes to development, the priority should always be brownfield.

[Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) (Con)]

I fully appreciate the problem of the unaffordability of housing, not least on the basis of my own casework, but the main concern in my area about development relates to the lack of infrastructure and, in particular, the failure to invest in the road network. Will my right hon. Friend ensure that councils plan for and seek investment in infrastructure in line with development? Does he recognise that there may be some need for investment from the infrastructure funds that he mentioned so that the infrastructure can catch up with housing that has already been built, as well as that which is planned?

[Sajid Javid]

I share my hon. Friend’s concern. She is right to emphasise the need for the right infrastructure, and more infrastructure, if we are to have more homes. That is one of the reasons why we launched the £2.3 billion housing infrastructure fund earlier this year. I encourage my hon. Friend’s council and others to apply to the fund, if they have not already done so.

The statement of common ground to which I have referred requires co-operation at the start of the process because much of the infrastructure, especially the major infrastructure, is naturally shared between local authorities. I think that that will also help to meet some of my hon. Friend’s concerns.