Oral Answers to Questions

Iain Stewart Excerpts

Monday 30th January 2012 Commons Chamber

[Greg Clark]

I had not spotted the hon. Lady at our party conference, but she would be a welcome visitor at any time. The consultation on village greens is being taken forward by DEFRA. What we have consulted on in the national planning policy framework is a new designation of local green space, which will make it open to every authority for the first time to protect locally valued green space in the same way as the green belt. We shall respond to that consultation shortly.

[Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con)]

14. What his timetable is for the next allocations of the new homes bonus.

[Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)]

16. What his timetable is for the next allocations of the new homes bonus.

[The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant Shapps)]

The Government will shortly announce the final new homes bonus payments for 2012-13. These were provisionally estimated in December at £430 million.

[Iain Stewart]

Will my right hon. Friend congratulate Conservative-run Milton Keynes council on its innovative plans to use part of a new homes bonus to acquire land assets from the Homes and Communities Agency, which will help to stimulate both more housing regeneration and economic growth?

[Grant Shapps]

Yes, absolutely. My hon. Friend’s council in Milton Keynes is a shining beacon of housing growth and delivery, which puts many other councils to shame.