Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Wood Excerpts

Wednesday 3rd March 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I think most people in this country will know that the Government have given £280 billion to support the people, the economy, the livelihoods and the businesses up and down the whole of the United Kingdom. That has, as you will hear from the Chancellor, Mr Speaker, placed strains on our public finances. In the meantime, we continue to do everything we possibly can to support the people of Yemen, including, by the way, through a massive vaccination programme, to which the people of this country have contributed £548 million—the second biggest contributor in the world.

[Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con)]

The Prime Minister will know from his time working in the Black Country how important our green spaces and green belt are. Will he make sure that Dudley Council and our Mayor Andy Street have the powers and resources they need to ensure that development is on brownfield rather than valuable green spaces, and that local people’s voices are clearly heard and taken into account, including where the proposed development is across local authority borders in the green belt surrounding Dudley South?

[The Prime Minister]

Indeed. We will protect our vital green belt, which I think constitutes 12.4% of our land. We can build our homes as my hon. Friend rightly suggests—300,000 of them on brownfield sites across the country.