Business of the House

Robert Halfon Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hague]

The hon. Lady raises an important issue. The development of the internet is bringing immense social and economic benefits, but it is also bringing dangers and more crime is moving on to the web. As a result, people need to know how to deal with such crime. That would be quite a good subject for a debate, but I encourage her to put it to the Backbench Business Committee or for an Adjournment debate. I cannot offer her Government time, since a lot of our time has been given to the Backbench Business Committee for such subjects, but I encourage her to put it forward.

[Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)]

May we have a statement on planning laws and protecting the rights of villagers? Many villagers in Nazeing in my constituency are concerned about a development of 45 houses on green-belt land, and have been urging the local authority to listen to them. Does my right hon. Friend agree that villagers’ rights should be protected, and will he write to the planning Minister about this case?

[Mr Hague]

It is very important to protect the green belt from development, and I will of course tell Ministers in the Department for Communities and Local Government about my hon. Friend’s question. The Government have already taken much action to protect villages in the situation that he describes, including by abolishing the previous Government’s top-down regional strategies, selling surplus brownfield land for redevelopment and introducing more flexible planning rights so that empty and underused buildings can be brought back into productive use. We have done a lot on this, but I will of course refer what he says to the relevant Ministers.