Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tristram Hunt and Lord Pickles

Monday 17th December 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

The green belt remains very safe and sound in coalition care. The position is clearly laid out in the national planning policy framework, and the Bill does not affect the green belt one iota.

[Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)]

15. What estimate he has made of the amount of open land required for house building in the next 20 years; and if he will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)]

T4. In towns and cities across England, local authorities are being forced to close museums, shut care homes and end library provision, but the Government found £250 million to empty the bins more regularly. What kind of abysmal, philistine, reactionary Government put dustbins above library books?

[Mr Pickles]

The people who are putting dustbins above those things are people who care about the general service provided to the electorate. The hon. Gentleman is a bit of a luvvie, so no doubt he is looking intensely at the drop in culture, but that is a matter for local decision, and he is wholly wrong. People should look at how an authority can get more money in by exploiting and using its cultural heritage. Frankly, he is just lining up a bunch of luvvies. He should listen a little bit more.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tristram Hunt and Lord Pickles

Monday 12th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

The hon. Lady makes a very reasonable point about these so-called beds in sheds. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Local Government recently had a meeting with a number of local authorities to look into ways in which the problem might be effectively dealt with. The hon. Lady will be pleased to know that there are more than adequate existing powers to deal with it, and as she rightly points out, the issue has been a lack of willpower. One authority—I shall not name it—has, frankly, let this get out of hand in a two-year process, so that the problem is now very difficult indeed to deal with.

[Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)]

Can the Secretary of State update the House on when we will receive version two of the national planning policy framework, so that we in this Chamber can enjoy the massive, copper-bottomed 180° U-turn at the same time as the press?

[Mr Pickles]

The hon. Gentleman may find himself spinning alone on that—but the answer is very soon.

Local Government Finance

Debate between Tristram Hunt and Lord Pickles

Monday 13th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

I do recognise that, and I apologise to my hon. Friend. I would not have wanted to start from this position; I would have wanted a fairer, more reasonable system. However, I recognise that when we start to move money around the country and change things round, we have to put in floors and ceilings. That would have been more disruptive to local government than what we are doing, which we are at least doing on the basis that we are all in this together and that we have managed to protect the most vulnerable authorities.

[Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)]

I have in my hand a rather thin document entitled “The thinking that underpins the Localism Bill”. It is full of big words such as “liberalism”, “community politics” and “big society”, some of which the Deputy Prime Minister thinks he understands, but is all this not just hot air unless we see a real end to rate capping, an offer of local tax-raising powers in communities and the return of the business rate, which the Tories removed?

[Mr Pickles]

Except for the abuse, it sounds as if the hon. Gentleman might be ready to defect across the Chamber—and we will, of course, be ready. I would hardly describe the bundle of documents that we have issued as insubstantial, and frankly, I would commend to him the plain English guide to the settlement. However, if he wants to make a representation to the Government about the reform of local government finance, he is most welcome to do so, because I will be absolutely frank: although he is no longer in his usual place, we are indebted to the right hon. Member for Greenwich and Woolwich (Mr Raynsford), on whose hard work we will be building, but who received scant thanks from the previous Government.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tristram Hunt and Lord Pickles

Thursday 10th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Pickles]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his welcome. It is entirely typical of his courtesy that his was the first letter of congratulation that I received. However, I have to tell him that it seems perverse for the Labour party to be concerned about housing numbers. After all, last year the lowest number of houses was built since 1946. Under Labour, it would appear that more damage was done to the housing industry than the Luftwaffe did.

[Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab)]

Does the Secretary of State recognise that, stretching back to the time of Herbert Morrison, the green belt is a great Labour achievement? Does he also recognise that the urban densification policy of the past 13 years has protected the green belt and regenerated our cities? Does the policy review announced today put in jeopardy all that good work?