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UK World Heritage Sites

: As Parliamentary Private Secretary to a Minister in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, I must be careful about what I say; I notice that my hon. Friend the Minister is looking at me with that thought in mind. However, I agree that it is important to promote high-quality design in development. I worked in the housing sector for 13 years, and I think that it is possible to secure very high-quality buildings that are fit for purpose through existing regimes, by acting creatively and addressing quality—and, occasionally perhaps, by pushing at the cost boundaries. Perhaps we should not mention the Scottish Parliament building in this context, but to ensure that we get quality, we should look very closely at planning applications within world heritage site areas. We need to ensure that partners who wish to work in those areas are aware of their responsibilities within the management plan. Time is pressing on, Mr. Olner, but I want to make two brief concluding remarks about Ironbridge. The first is on a positive note, while the second is about a local problem with which I hope the Minister might be able to help us. First, Ironbridge gorge, within my constituency, has a major and regular flooding problem, which goes beyond Ironbridge, down through Coalbrookdale to Coalport. Recently, in February 2004 and November 2005, we instituted a successful scheme that defended the Wharfage by placing pallet barriers along it. We were grateful to ministers at DEFRA for working with ourselves and the local community to ensure that we had flood protection on the Wharfage at Ironbridge. But there are still properties where we have problems, so it would help if the Minister could meet council officials and myself to discuss continuing problems with flooding in the world heritage site area. Secondly, as local people will be aware, there is a major problem with land instability within the gorge. A combination of geology, erosion, mineral exploitation and ongoing development within the gorge has caused a series of land instability problems. The bill for remedying that is significant. The initial scheme, which we have at the moment, to stabilise one of the areas at greatest risk, will cost £5.2 million. That will be funded by the European regional development fund and specific awards through the local transport plan. But we need to look at a much larger scheme—for which we would need Government support—if we are to ensure that we deal with that land instability problem, and avoid ongoing problems with our world heritage site resulting from the natural environment. I will conclude there, having tried to canter round the broad issues relating to world heritage—some of the challenges and problems that we face, but also some opportunities. We have a massive asset here which, if we are careful, will ensure that we bring in a large number of tourists to the UK and promote tourism across it. World heritage sites can be an engine for their local economy. We have certainly found that with Ironbridge, and I know that other hon. Members find the same with the world heritage sites in their areas. I am proud to chair the all-party group, and I look forward to a continuing dialogue with the DCMS and other departments on the issues that I have raised.