Hansard - United Kingdom Parliament

13 Oral Answers
20 JUNE 2011
Oral Answers
14
Planning
15. George Freeman (Mid Norfolk) (Con): What
steps he is taking to enhance the role of
neighbourhoods and town and parish councils in local
planning. [60288]
The Minister of State, Department for Communities
and Local Government (Greg Clark): The Localism Bill
gives every community the right to have a neighbourhood
plan, and town and parish councils will have a leading
role in bringing the plans together. The National Association
of Local Councils, which is the umbrella body for town
and parish councils, is one of five organisations funded
to provide assistance to neighbourhoods in drawing up
their plans.
George Freeman: I thank the Minister for that answer,
and on behalf of the 110 villages and four towns in Mid
Norfolk I thank him for giving them the opportunity to
take control of their own housing policy after a decade
in which housing policy was something done to them by
unelected Labour quangos. Can he reassure the town
councils in my constituency that where a district council,
for good reason, is seeking to complete a local development
framework in an area with very high speculative pressure
from developers, there will be some scope for town
councils to put in place their own plan for their town,
such that housing that has been provided for can be
delivered in a way that will boost the identity of that
town and its sense of itself?
Greg Clark: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As he
will know, the parish council in Attleborough, in his
constituency, is already drawing up a neighbourhood
plan, so that plan can have statutory force as soon as
the provisions of the Localism Bill come into effect. I
encourage other councils throughout the country to
join the more than 90 parishes and neighbourhoods
that are drawing up neighbourhood plans, even in advance
of the Bill’s provisions coming into law.
Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab): The Minister
will know that I do not share his optimism about the
effectiveness of his planning process proposals in engaging
people. How will relaxing the planning rules on converting
offices into homes give more powers to neighbourhoods
and communities?
Greg Clark: Having debated these matters with the
hon. Lady in the Localism Bill Committee, I would have
thought she would be the first to recognise the need to
turn derelict buildings that are not being used into
housing that can be used for people in city centres. I am
surprised at her attitude. However, I can update her. I
know that she expressed some scepticism about the idea
that people would be enthusiastic about this, but I have
to tell her that since the Bill Committee, we have been
vastly oversubscribed by enthusiastic councils in all
areas of the country that are eager to get on with
neighbourhood planning. That has surpassed our
expectations and bodes pretty well for the take-up of
the rights.
Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD): The Government’s
natural environment White Paper proposes a new
designation of green areas to be identified in neighbourhood
plans. However, those plans must remain in line with
the local authority’s strategic vision for its area. How
does the Minister propose that neighbourhood plans
could safeguard green areas of land identified for
development in existing local development frameworks?
Greg Clark: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his
question. Our hon. Friend the Member for Cheltenham
(Martin Horwood) proposed the designation in the first
place. Hon. Members will see in the national planning
policy framework that we will capture a definition that
will allow the people who know green spaces best—those
who live with them—to provide them with the protection
for which they have been looking for some time.
Transparency (Local Government Spending)
17. Jane Ellison (Battersea) (Con): What steps he is
taking to improve the transparency of spending in local
government; and if he will make a statement. [60290]
The Minister for Housing and Local Government (Grant
Shapps): All local authorities in England now publish
details of their £500 spend online and our Department
routinely publishes a wide range of statistics on local
authority spend. I say all local authorities but there is
one exception to that rule—Labour Nottingham.
Jane Ellison: Ministers have already referred to the
sound stewardship of Wandsworth council, which not
only publishes everything over £500 spending wise but
publishes the salary and expenses of all its staff who
earn over £58,200. Will the Minister urge all public
bodies to follow that lead?
Grant Shapps: My hon. Friend is absolutely right
about this. It is incredibly important that public bodies
follow that lead. Transparency is at the very heart of
allowing citizens to take part in local democracy and
hold public bodies to account, and I cannot imagine for
one moment why any public body would want to hold
out against that. It is extraordinary that some do and
even more extraordinary that one of them is a major
city authority such as Nottingham.
Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab): Will
the Minister be fully transparent about how much the
people of Birmingham will have to pay for the establishment
of the imposed office of a shadow executive mayor and
what they will have to pay in reconversion costs if they
happen to reject that back-to-front proposal when he
finally consults them in a referendum?
Grant Shapps: I think we might be finally making
progress. The good news for the hon. Gentleman is that
when that kind of transparency is combined, everyone
can hold local authorities to account—that is the whole
point. When people try to cover things up and when
huge amounts of expenditure go completely unchecked
by armchair auditors, that cannot happen, but this way
it can and will.
Business Rates
18. Paul Goggins (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab):
What assessment he has made of the likely effects of
retention of business rates on local authorities in areas
with high levels of deprivation. [60291]