Oral Answers to Questions

Zöe Franklin Excerpts

Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Zöe Franklin (Guildford) (LD)]

I welcome the right hon. Lady to her place alongside her team. Guildford borough council’s latest green-belt assessment found that 92% of its green belt now meets the Government’s grey belt definition, and its assessed housing need has been doubled by the Government from 562 to 1,168 homes a year. That has left many of my residents worried about the loss of green spaces, about unsustainable development without appropriate infrastructure and about the loss of the distinctive historic character of their villages.

What assessment has the Secretary of State made of the potential impact of planning policy on green-belt land in my constituency, which falls within the Guildford borough area? Can she outline what steps her Government will take to protect green spaces for communities by ensuring that developers are directed towards genuine brownfield sites first, rather than development being concentrated on land around Guildford that was previously protected by the green belt?

[Angela Rayner]

What we have been doing is making sure we are strengthening and clarifying the rules around the release of grey belt, but brownfield has to be first. We are also strengthening policy provisions to support local authorities in planning for green space at a strategic level, to ensure that green space is available and that we have the housing and infrastructure people need, but brownfield has to be used first. I encourage the hon. Lady to work with her local authority to look at its local plans.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

[Zöe Franklin (Guildford) (LD)]

I welcome the Prime Minister’s indication that newly formed local authorities will not be forced to have a strategic mayor in order to benefit from devolution. However, the key to success will be ensuring real fiscal devolution to support and deliver services and economic growth for residents. Will the Minister set out how the Department will ensure that for non-mayoral strategic authorities, including the emerging foundation strategic authority in Surrey, where my constituency is based? How will she ensure that our area receives the financial resources to make meaningful funding decisions at a regional level, including by accessing funding streams currently available only to mayoral strategic authorities?

[Sally Jameson]

Our ambition is to ensure that everywhere in England has or is in the process of establishing a strategic authority by the end of 2027, and that strategic authorities are in place everywhere by the end of 2028. It is right that we will not impose mayors on areas that do not want one, but we consider directly accountable mayors the strongest form of governance, which is why they have a different set of available powers and money. I would be happy to discuss that further with the hon. Lady. We will be setting out more information about our plans for devolution in the coming months.