John McDonnell
Redwood Asks Minister to Put mor faith in Local Planning Authorities
On Monday, John Redwood asked the Minister for State Housing & Planning, why the government had not faith in planning decisions made by local councils. The exchange was as follows:
Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Why do not the Minister and the Government have more confidence in the decisions of local authorities? We elect them and they speak for their local communities, so why can they not make decisions about where buildings should go?
Yvette Cooper: As the right hon. Gentleman will be aware, local authorities draw up their local plans. They hold consultations with their local communities and have to take decisions on planning applications that come forward. There will always be cases that have an impact that goes much wider than individual local authorities, and it is right that they should be considered through call-in processes or other processes. I have to say to Conservative Members that often what lies behind their anguish about local decisions is the fact that there is a local decision that they do not like because they do not want new homes to be built in their areas.
