§ Mr. John GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he plans to publish the revised planning policy guidance note 7 on the countryside; and if he will make a statement. [16899]
§ Mr. GummerI am today publishing revised policy planning guidance note 7 on the countryside.
This new guidance note carries forward our commitment to a living countryside. It will help to ensure that the countryside is increasingly a place in which communities and businesses can thrive, while maintaining the unique qualities which make the English countryside such an attractive place in which to live and work.
The revised note fulfils key commitments in our rural White Paper by giving greater encouragement to business diversification in the countryside while ensuring that necessary development is of a good quality, complementing and respecting the character of the countryside around it.
The majority of the over 400 responses to the consultation draft welcomed the revised PPG7's comprehensive coverage of planning in the countryside and felt that it struck a fair and realistic balance between environmental protection and the need to stimulate rural economic activity. There was particular support for its coverage of sustainable development principles; its recognition of the interdependence between urban and rural policies; its acknowledgement of the value of rural strategies and its increased emphasis on good design.
The new guidance note restates and clarifies policy on protecting from development the best agricultural land as a national resource. This means that we will maintain a stock of the best agricultural land, with its versatility and efficiency for farming, while making it clear that a more flexible approach may be adopted where there is an 585W overriding need for development and any alternative land has a recognised, high environmental value or there is little suitable land of lower agricultural quality available.
In addition, the guidance note clarifies policy on the reuse of rural buildings, allowing greater discrimination in favour of reuse for business rather than residential purposes; it stresses the importance of thoroughly checking the lawfulness of developments to be carried out under agricultural permitted development rights; advises on the possible removal of new buildings which abuse permitted development rights, without placing unnecessary additional burdens on genuine farmers; and advises local planning authorities on the scope for making planning permission conditional on the removal of unused ugly or derelict buildings in certain circumstances.
I am also pleased to announce today that Charles Nunneley, chairman of the National Trust, has agreed to chair a small working group on the possible introduction of a rural business use class. This proposal, also included in the Rural White Paper, is designed to encourage enterprise in rural areas by giving local planning authorities an additional control, where needed, over the intensification of new businesses. The working party will consider how best to achieve the implementation of this proposal, taking account of the various practical issues and difficulties identified during the recent consultation exercise.