Roberta Blackman-Woods
Main Page: Roberta Blackman-Woods (Labour - City of Durham)
Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab)
Last year while considering the national planning policy framework, the then Planning Minister failed to listen to Labour Members and the many campaign groups who said that, with no assistance, 12 months would not be long enough to get all areas covered by local plans. We now learn that 52% of local authorities do not have a local plan in place. Will the current Minister learn from his predecessor’s mistakes and act now to ensure that those areas unprotected by a new local plan are not inundated with inappropriate development when transitional arrangements end in nine days’ time, or is that part of his scheme to replace planning with chaos?
Nick Boles
The hon. Lady would be arguing on stronger ground if she admitted that, under the previous Government, by May 2010 only 17% of local authorities had a local plan adopted, and 32% had one published. Now, 48% of local authorities have plans adopted and 71% have plans published. Progress has been excellent and we will keep the pressure on local authorities to produce those plans.