Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Halfon and Lord Pickles
Robert Halfon
Anything to catch your eye, Mr Speaker. My constituents welcome the scrapping of the last Government’s guidance on diversity and equality in planning, but many residents in places such as Nazeing are concerned that Travellers can apply for retrospective planning permission. Will my hon. Friend come to my constituency, meet with local residents and reassure my residents who feel the planning system is biased against them when it comes to Travellers?
Mr Pickles
One knows when one has been Tangoed. I will of course be delighted to meet my hon. Friend, but I can give his constituents this reassurance: in the Localism Act 2011 we abolished the ability to have retrospective planning appeals and enforcement at the same time. I think that will help the residents of Nazeing.
Growth and Infrastructure Bill
Debate between Robert Halfon and Lord Pickles
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
Will my right hon. Friend confirm that, despite what is being said in the media, the planning guidance hands back local power to local people, in particular through the neighbourhood plans?
Mr Pickles
Of course it does, and it is pleasing that so many local authorities now publish a plan much more quickly and in a much better way than under the old system.
To return to the national planning policy framework, we have streamlined 1,000 pages of planning guidance down to a mere 50 pages and opened up the planning system, which is no longer the preserve of lawyers, town hall officers and non-governmental organisations, but there is more to do.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Halfon and Lord Pickles
Mr Pickles
I will indeed join my hon. Friend in congratulating his council. As I said in my original answer, this is quite a big deal, amounting to £2 billion a year. I think it was Cheshire East council that managed to save £500,000 a year on the single person discount. We are not talking about trivial amounts here; we are talking about something that will make a big difference.
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
7. What steps his Department is taking to support home ownership.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Halfon and Lord Pickles
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
20. What recent estimate he has made of the average change to council tax bills for households in (a) Harlow, (b) Epping Forest and (c) Essex between 2010-11 and 2011-12.
The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles)
It is good to see my hon. Friend in his usual place.
Council tax bills for Harlow, Epping Forest and Essex are unchanged between 2010-11 and 2011-12. That pleases me, too, as my hon. Friend and I are constituency neighbours and share Epping Forest and Essex.
Robert Halfon
It is the second year in a row that Harlow council has frozen council tax without having a major impact on front-line services. Will the Secretary of State meet Harlow councillors to learn how their example can be spread throughout the country?
Mr Pickles
As my hon. Friend is my neighbour, it will obviously be a pleasure to visit an exemplar council, which is doing the right thing: protecting front-line services and keeping down the council tax.
Local Government Funding
Debate between Robert Halfon and Lord Pickles
Mr Pickles
The hon. Gentleman is well aware that in the emergency Budget we had to prevent money that had not been paid out from being paid—it is difficult to take money from areas that have not received any at all. He seems to think that we live in a vacuum. Has he seen what has gone on in other parts of the continent and the problems that other Governments face? Had we not taken these decisions we could have found ourselves in precisely the same position.
Robert Halfon
Would not councils have had a lot more money in recent years if they had not had to spend millions on ridiculous inspection regimes?
Mr Pickles
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As part of the deal in which local government will have less money and more power, we will reduce the number of unnecessary regimes.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Robert Halfon and Lord Pickles(14 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
Is the Secretary of State aware that hard-pressed taxpayers in Harlow and elsewhere are paying the East of England Development Agency chief executive a higher salary than the Prime Minister? When the Secretary of State gets rid of this unnecessary and wasteful bureaucracy, will he ensure that the new local enterprise partnerships no longer waste taxpayers’ money in this way?
Mr Pickles
Absolutely, and I will certainly be willing to go to the chief executive’s leaving party.