§ 16. Mr. James Gray (North Wiltshire)If he will make a statement on his plans to implement the urban task force's recommendations. [89491]
§ The Minister for the Regions, Regeneration and Planning (Mr. Richard Caborn)The final report of the urban task force, "Towards an Urban Renaissance", was published on 29 June. The urban White Paper will provide our main response to the task force's recommendations, and will be published in the next 12 months. In the meantime, we have invited comments on the task force report from interested parties.
§ Mr. GrayIn answer to an earlier question, the Minister suggested that Lord Rogers's task force had said 164 that the Government would achieve the building of 60 or even 65 per cent. of new housing on brown-field land. The reality is of course quite different. Lord Rogers said that the Government would achieve only 55 per cent. of such building unless they accepted one of the task force's 105 recommendations.
May I help the Minister by suggesting that he might consider just one recommendation: the strengthening of the green belt in areas that are not technically green belt, such as the rural buffer zone that protects my constituency from the ever-westward expansion of Swindon? Will he protect Wootton Bassett from Swindon, or will he allow my constituency to be buried under concrete, as he is the rest of England?
§ Mr. CabornThe reference to 65 per cent. concerned the east midlands, in response to the specific question asked. The green belt would be subject to public examination, to which everyone could contribute. It is absolutely clear from Government guidance that the green belt is there and that we will protect it. Indeed, a Labour Government introduced it, as they did national parks and the Town and Country Planning Act 1947. We are very proud of what previous Labour Governments have done in land-use planning over the past half century.
§ Mr. Vernon Coaker (Gedling)Will my hon. Friend do as much as he can to encourage as wide a public debate as possible on Lord Rogers's report, since it is a most important document? If we do not get some of the things in it right, we will find the implementation of many policies, such as those protecting the green belt and others that we want, difficult to achieve. It is essential that we include the public in the debate about how to implement Lord Rogers's report.
§ Mr. CabornI could not agree more with my hon. Friend. There will be a wide-ranging debate on the Lord Rogers task force and the report that it has produced. However, we shall be going wider than that as we produce the urban White Paper, which will be the first such document for more than 20 years. It will be taking on issues such as education, crime and a reasonable environment in our major urban areas where people will want to live, work and play, contrary to what the Conservative Administration left us to deal with when they left office.