HC Deb 08 November 1960 vol 629 cc801-2
7. Mrs. Butler

asked the Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs if he will consult with the President of the Board of Trade with a view to taking powers to control the spread of commercial development in the Greater London area.

The Minister of Housing and Local Government and Minister for Welsh Affairs (Mr. Henry Brooke)

The spread of commercial development is already controlled under planning powers. I am always prepared to consider proposals improving their effectiveness.

Mrs. Butler

As office approvals have averaged 4½ million square feet per year in central London over the last ten years and current office building approvals amount to 5 million square feet, with the consequent pressure on the already acute transport and housing situation, is it not time the two Ministries got together to help the planning authorities with their peculiarly difficult problem of moving office accommodation to outer areas by some system of commercial development certificates or in some other way?

Mr. Brooke

This is an extremely important problem. If the hon. Lady looks into it, she will find that the number of planning permissions given in recent years since my right hon. Friend the present Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations asked the London County Council to tighten up is considerably lower than the figure which she has mentioned. The difficulty about applying any kind of development certificate is that, whereas an industrial development certificate is given to a particular firm, with offices it is not usually known what firms will occupy them until they have been built.

Mr. M. Stewart

Would not the right hon. Gentleman agree that the present powers, whatever they are, are clearly not sufficient to prevent London being turned into a magnet in a way that makes its housing and transport problems increasingly difficult to solve? Ought he not to find some answer to the problem?

Mr. Brooke

It is a very difficult question. I quite agree that we have not got the complete answer yet. As I have said, I am always prepared to consider fresh proposals, but, meanwhile, the planning authority and I are co-operating to try to prevent unnecessary permissions being given for office building.