Marcus Jones
Main Page: Marcus Jones (Conservative - Nuneaton)
Mr Speaker
Yes, the right hon. Gentleman might have been prescient. I am sure the hon. Member for Romford was told by the Department. If he was not, we are sorry. If he was, he should be here and we are sorry that he is not. No doubt further and better information will become available in due course.
Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)
2. What steps he is taking to encourage development on brownfield land.
Chloe Smith (Norwich North) (Con)
4. What steps he is taking to encourage development on brownfield land.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Nick Boles)
The Government are determined to make the best use of brownfield land and meet as much of our housing need as possible on brownfield sites. Earlier this month, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State announced an ambitious package of reforms to accelerate development on brownfield sites and deliver up to 200,000 homes by 2020.
Mr Jones
Residential development on brownfield land in town centres is a key way to protect small and medium-sized town centres from the structural change in retailing while alleviating the demand for residential development on countryside land. Will my hon. Friend set out what more can be done to encourage councils, when putting in place their local plans—they are doing that now—to develop more on brownfield sites?
Nick Boles
My hon. Friend makes an extremely important argument that one of the ways to revive town centres is to bring more people to live right in the heart of them. That is why we have introduced a permitted development right to make it easier to convert offices into residential property. It is also why, in the recently published planning guidance, we made it clear that councils should be looking to incentivise development on brownfield sites and reflect the cost of developing those sites.