§ Mr. Michael Lathamasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has now completed his study of the report of the Standing Conference on London and South-East Regional Planning regarding green belt land; if he will now publish it; and for what date his next meeting with the chairman has been arranged.
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§ Mr. John SilkinThe Standing Conference has completed the exercise. A formal report is unnecessary and no further meeting has been arranged. It will now be for the local planning authorities to publish the location of the sites. I have written today to the Chairman of the Standing Conference in the folowing terms
We met in January to review progress on the exercise to identify 2,000 acres of land in the Green Belt which might be released for housing without damage to basic Green Belt policies. You told me that your member authorities had identified approximately 950 acres for this purpose and that the balance was accounted for by land released co appeal since the exercise began and other land which you considered might ultimately have to be released as a consequence of the appeal decisions. I felt that more time was needed to consider the outcome of the exercise before any details were publshed. I would now be very happy for the local planning authorities concerned to identify the 950 acres and to enter into whatever public consultations about them they consider desirable.Following our meeting, an opportunity of reaffirming the Government's commitment to the Green Belt arose in my reply to Michael Latham's Parliamentary Question on 31st January. I said then that there would be firm Government support for local planning authorites' resistance to development involving unacceptable encroachment on the Green Belt, bearing in mind that it was the Secretary of State's statutory duty to consider all planning appeals on their merits. This is still the Government's position.Finally, I would like to thank you and the local authorities concerned for their co-operation in carrying out this exercise.