Oral Answers to Questions

Marcus Jones Excerpts

Monday 17th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)]

7. What steps he has taken to allow local authorities to tackle inappropriate development on gardens.

[Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)]

15. What steps he has taken to allow local authorities to tackle inappropriate development on gardens.

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

This Government acted immediately in June 2010 to scrap the guidance that classified gardens as brownfield land and encouraged developers to build on them. The new national planning policy framework enables local authorities to resist garden grabbing.

[Nick Boles]

Yes; the Government have already taken important steps to empower local people, through neighbourhood plans and the community right to buy. I hope that some of the communities that my hon. Friend represents so ably in and around York will take advantage of them.

[Mr Marcus Jones]

I welcome my hon. Friend to his new place.

Garden grabbing has been a scourge across the country over a number of years, eroding the character of many local communities against the wishes of local people. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is important that local communities are involved in the planning process at the earliest possible opportunity and that neighbourhood planning is an important way to ensure that communities develop in line with the views of local people?

[Nick Boles]

I share my hon. Friend’s enthusiasm for neighbourhood planning. It is a matter of regret that Nuneaton and Bedworth council, which is of course Labour controlled, has not yet taken the opportunity to give people in his constituency a real say over the future of their communities.