MARTIN QUESTIONS QUANGO POWERS OVER LOCAL HOUSING

4.15.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Apr 2008

CHELTENHAM MP Martin Horwood has taken the opportunity of a debate on the Housing and Regeneration Bill to challenge the government's delegation of more and more power to unelected quangos and inspectors. He was supporting amendments to the Bill which would limit the powers of the proposed Homes and Communities Agency which is going to be given wide-ranging powers to acquire, develop and dispose of land in support of the government's housing plans. Martin exposed the reality of unelected bodies meddling in local housing decisions by quoting the example of the South West Regional Assembly's Regional Spatial Strategy.

In the debate, Martin said:

'In the south-west, we are in the latest stage of an almost endless consultation, with the examination in public panel report, which has blithely dismissed some strongly held local views and is an example of how unelected quangos and Government-appointed inspectors can run away with their own sense of self-importance at the expense of local people's views. The examination in public panel report for the south-west describes land at "the foot of Leckhampton Hill," next to my constituency, "which marks part of the western extent of the Cotswolds and is a local beauty spot of some historical interest. There are panoramic views both to and from the hill which include views across part of the Leckhampton/Shurdington land and of Cheltenham itself. A large number of draft RSS representations relate to this land and the Panel is left in no doubt that the Hill and the views from it are an amenity much appreciated by local people."

Yet four paragraphs later all those concerns and all that respect for the local area are blithely dismissed. The panel simply says:

"We are also content, from our own inspection of the area, that there is scope for sustainable development here without harm to the AONB, the outlook from Leckhampton Hill or to the local environment. Regional Flood Risk appraisal has cleared the way for any flooding issue to be addressed through later strategic flood risk appraisal."

Presumably the panel did not see the area when it was all under water last July.

Strongly held local views are being dismissed by such quangos after years of earlier consultation in which local elected and community representatives were more or less of one mind-strongly in favour of more social housing, more urban regeneration and more appropriate small developments around villages, whose shops, post offices and schools are dying through a lack of people, and in general opposed to urban extensions around already affluent towns such as Cheltenham. What do we get in draft after draft of the regional spatial strategy? We get urban extensions around already affluent towns, where, historically, large quantities of land have already been released over decades, with no discernable impact on relative house prices.'