HC Deb 20 July 1988 vol 137 c681W
46. Mr. Tim Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the effect of planning policy on the location of investment.

Mr. Waldegrave

While the planning system cannot of itself stimulate investment, the effect of placing necessary restrictions on development in particular areas or locations may be to divert investment elsewhere. The effectiveness of a simplified planning regime in encouraging investment into particular locations was one of the issues considered in the recently published evaluation of the enterprise zone experiment.

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