Revised National Planning Framework

Jim Shannon Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Maria Miller]

It is as if the hon. Lady has read what I am about to say—she is completely right. Cutting house building in Basingstoke will better reflect the situation we have in our community, and that is what my residents want to see, not those numbers continuing to be set from Whitehall.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

The right hon. Lady has outlined the way house building impacts her constituency, but does she agree that while planning policy must protect and enhance our environment, it must also focus on the needs of an area? Planners must give material consideration and weighted concern to economic development and job creation.

[Dame Maria Miller]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Each of those considerations is different in our individual constituencies, so rather than taking a sledgehammer and telling each of our local authorities how many houses to build, they should reflect the nuance that the hon. Gentleman mentions.

As the Secretary of State set out when he announced the changes to the national planning policy framework, it is for local authorities and their councillors to use the new powers. In Basingstoke’s case, that means Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and our councillors. They have to take responsibility for using the new NPPF. They have the new powers to use and they understand the pressures that have been put on services, especially the NHS, by exceptionally high volumes of house building in Basingstoke. Councillors must use the new powers to cut house building, at least until the NHS has caught up and, I would argue, until they find a way to further increase the capacity of our roads, which is technically very difficult.