Sutton Coldfield Green Belt

Julian Knight Excerpts

Tuesday 26th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Mitchell]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right.

Throughout our campaign, there have been significant campaigning events and marches over the green belt involving hundreds of my constituents. Indeed, I have addressed meetings attended by more than 1,000 people in my constituency. Royal Sutton’s Conservative councillors have campaigned vigorously against Birmingham’s proposals. I pay particular tribute to Project Fields, led so brilliantly by a local campaigner, Suzanne Webb, and to the three councillors in New Hall whose constituents are most directly affected by these proposals, Councillors Yip, Wood and Barrie. More than 6,000 people from our town have written directly opposing the proposals; all have been ignored. Consultation processes held in holiday periods, and ill-considered comments by Labour councillors that it was all “a done deal” and protest was futile, did nothing to deter the sense of local anger and injustice.

This campaigning of ours is localism writ large. It is the “big society” made flesh. However, my constituents have been wilfully ignored by council officials—ever courteous, of course—as officials have been dispatched to inform us of their political masters’ decisions rather than consulting us, and to advise us that resistance is hopeless as this Labour-inspired juggernaut bears down upon us all in Sutton Coldfield. We have been very constructive in advancing alternative ideas, propositions and compromises, none of which has even received the courtesy of a serious response.

There are huge opportunities to maximise brownfield sites in Birmingham, and examples, too, of how to build new and fulfilling inner-city communities featuring proper infrastructure and opportunity. Such developments could make a significant contribution to Birmingham in its emerging role as a key element of the midlands engine. There are between 40,000 and 50,000 existing brownfield opportunities in Birmingham, but alas, my calls for an independent audit of brownfield land in Birmingham fell on deaf Labour ears. There are also new areas covered by the local enterprise partnership which seek house building as part of their strategy for economic growth and new jobs, but again no comprehensive audit has been carried out. There is an enormous opportunity to build as many as 8,300 homes at Brookhay—more than the entire number with which our green belt in Sutton is threatened.

Most important of all, I have put forward a compromise proposal that there should be a moratorium of between eight and 10 years while the rest of Birmingham City Council’s building plans take shape before there is any question of building on our green belt in Sutton Coldfield. That will allow us to take account of updated figures and up-to-date developments, not least the inward immigration figures for Birmingham, which, each time they are examined, vary by a multiple of the 6,000 homes with which we are threatened. This compromise proposal will allow for further consultation in 2023 based on updated figures for housing needs throughout the wider area. That might arm officials in Birmingham with serious and credible arguments for building on the green belt, but such arguments are wholly absent today.

Royal Sutton Coldfield is an ancient royal town with more than 1,000 proud years of history, and the sheer scale of the proposed destruction of our green belt is not easy to describe.

[Julian Knight (Solihull) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend is showing himself to be a strong advocate for his constituents and his community. I am disturbed by what I have heard in his speech but I am not surprised. Does he agree that these plans add fuel to the fire in regard to his proposal to break the city of Birmingham up into its constituent parts?

[Mr Mitchell]

That is perhaps a debate for another day, but I agree with my hon. Friend. He understands why such a proposal could make a considerable contribution to good local governance.

As I was saying, the sheer scale of the proposed destruction of our green belt is not easy to describe. The imposition of a colossal 6,000 homes adjacent to our town would be impossible for us to absorb. It would be a wholly inedible Labour dump of concrete, which would change forever the character of Sutton Coldfield and have huge infrastructure consequences, which have barely received the slightest official attention. For example, our local hospitals, which would undoubtedly be affected by these monstrous proposals, have not even been consulted on the plans. The effects on schools, healthcare and other amenities have hardly been considered, and the huge implications of the strain that would be imposed on our transportation systems, alongside the knock-on effect on other communities, are barely understood, let alone addressed.

The people of Sutton Coldfield have cried out against these proposals with an articulate, unanimous and mighty voice, and the Government have a commitment to hear them. We demand that the Government step in to resist these plans. We offer our compromise proposal for an eight-year moratorium on this aspect of the overall plan, and we do so in a spirit of good will for the sake of our town and of future generations. We fully understand the importance of building more homes for the future, but those homes must be built in the right place. We ask the Minister and the Government to heed our cry today, and we ask the Government to accept the case that we have made and to take the necessary action forthwith.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (James Wharton)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) on securing this debate. I also note the presence in the Chamber of my hon. Friends the Members for Solihull (Julian Knight) and for Aldridge-Brownhills (Wendy Morton), which underlines the importance with which this matter is viewed. My right hon. Friend has painted a picture with a clarity that is rarely demonstrated to such effect in debates in this place, in describing his concerns and those of his constituents. The fact that we are having this debate tonight, that he has covered so many topics and that he has spoken so clearly and forcefully on the matter serves to underline the importance of the issue locally and the importance that the Government must attach to it in considering his concerns.

I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend’s strong campaigning for the interests of the royal town of Sutton Coldfield and of his constituents, and I note his clear concern that the nearby green belt should not be lost to housing development unnecessarily or needlessly. May I take this opportunity also to wish success to the new royal town council, due to be established later this year? As we again emphasised in the run-up to last year’s general election, this Government attach great importance to the green belt. It is the way to prevent the uncontrolled sprawl of conurbations, and the unwanted merging of towns and villages proud of their special, separate identity. At the same time, as my right hon. Friend recognises, we need to build new homes as well as making full use of existing dwellings and other buildings suitable for residential use. Our national planning policy framework makes it clear that local authorities should heed its safeguards for the environment. Strong restraints and protections are in place.

About 40% of England is protected against development by designations such as green belt, areas of outstanding natural beauty and national parks. Since 2010, we have made significant progress in speeding up and simplifying the planning system, building the homes this country needs while protecting valued countryside and our historic environment.

We issued additional guidance in 2014 to remind local authorities—and indeed planning inspectors—that, in planning to meet objectively assessed local housing needs, they must still have regard to national policies such as those protecting the green belt. My right hon. Friend will appreciate that Ministers cannot comment on draft local plans that are still before the appointed inspector, but in response to his speech I would make the following general comments.

First, on housing, it is widely accepted that England has built too few homes for many years. The pace of housing development was bureaucratic and slow. This drove up prices and rents, and regional strategies imposed central Government targets. Our reforms are now delivering a substantial increase in housing provision: over 639,000 new homes built since April 2010; over 135,000 housing completions in the year to September 2015; planning permission for 242,000 homes granted in the year to June 2015, up 44% on the previous year; and the widening of permitted development to allow better use of existing buildings, which has allowed thousands of office-to-residential conversions.

The success of our reforms depends on getting up-to-date local plans in place. That includes assembling robust and objective evidence of housing needs in each area. So our framework asks each local authority to prepare a strategic housing market assessment to assess its full housing needs.

[Julian Knight]

My hon. Friend the Minister is making a powerful case in terms of the success of this Government’s housing policy, but will he also think upon the fact that, as my right hon. Friend the Member for Sutton Coldfield (Mr Mitchell) said, Birmingham council has not even consulted the local hospital trust, which covers hospitals in my constituency as well? That trust, the Heart of England trust, is currently suffering severe financial difficulties, and this measure may well add to them. Surely that shows that the local plan was inept?

[James Wharton]

My hon. Friend tempts me to repeat what I said earlier about not wanting to comment on individual plans, but there is a process through which they need to be considered. His views are very important as part of that process. He is articulating them clearly and I am sure they will be heard not just by me and all of us present in the Chamber for this debate, but much wider than that.