Growth and Infrastructure Bill

Paul Beresford Excerpts

Monday 5th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

That is absolutely right. That goes to the heart of what we are doing. We are pleased to be introducing healthy competition.

[Sir Paul Beresford (Mole Valley) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend accept, from his experience of local government, my experience and that of the Minister, that one of the concerns many of us may have is that for a planning authority and a planning committee to understand what is economically viable will be difficult? There may be a slight flaw and a problem there.

[Mr Pickles]

I think that is precisely how we got into this problem. That is why we are looking to developers and local authorities to work together in open negotiation and, to use the words of the hon. Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones), to be much more competition and market-oriented. We want to get a degree of realism into the process.