PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Planning Permission: Birmingham (20 October 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if his Department will consult with Natural England on plans set out in the Birmingham City Council Development Plan and in particular to build on green belt land in Sutton Coldfield.

Asked by:
Mr Andrew Mitchell (Conservative)

This Government has revoked the previous administration’s top-down undemocratic Regional Strategies. It is for local councils in conjunction with their communities to determine what development is appropriate and where in bringing forward their Local Plans. Legislation specifically requires that councils consult Natural England in doing so.

Through its planning policy this Government has maintained strong protections against inappropriate development in the Green Belt, and made absolutely clear that councils can only amend their Green Belt boundaries in exceptional circumstances, through the Local Plan.

My Department has recently published new planning guidance reaffirming how councils should use their Local Plan drawing on protections in the National Planning Policy Framework, to safeguard their local area against urban sprawl. We have also made clear that the single issue of unmet demand is unlikely to outweigh harm to the Green Belt and other harm necessary to grant permission for inappropriate development. Unlike the Labour’s discredited Regional Strategies, we have been very clear that there are no central diktats demanding that councils rip up the Green Belt.

Answered by:
Sir Brandon Lewis (Conservative)
23 October 2014