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Hatchfield Farm Development

An application for a proposed development at Hatchfield farm has been lodged with the district council. In the first instance, it is for the local authority to consider it. However, the scheme could come before Communities and Local Government Ministers for determination, which is why, as I said earlier, it is not possible for me to comment on the proposals at this point. It is the policy of the Secretary of State to be selective about calling in planning applications. In general, he will take such a step only if planning issues of more than local importance are involved. Such cases could include those which may, for example, conflict with national policies on important matters, have significant effects beyond their immediate locality, give rise to substantial regional or national controversy, raise significant architectural or urban design issues or involve the interests of national security or foreign Governments. There is a range of factors on which applications could be called in, and each one is considered on its individual merits. I have no doubt that the hon. Gentleman will be making representations as the issue develops to the local authority and to the Government. In conclusion, I wish to make one more point. The hon. Gentleman said that it is his party's policy to abolish regional spatial strategies, targets for housing development and all the rest of it if it were elected. The challenge that he and his colleagues face is to demonstrate to their constituents and, indeed, families across the country how they will ensure that they can provide the homes that this country needs and that families are desperate to buy—there are young people in his constituency, like everywhere else, who are desperate to own a home of their own—without some kind of national, regional and local planning framework that ensures that such homes are, in fact, developed. The hon. Gentleman and his colleagues need to demonstrate how we would be able to rely on local authorities across the country—on their own, without any form of co-ordination at a local, regional or national level—to ensure that homes are developed. It is simply not true to suggest, as his party does, that regional spatial strategies are some kind of new and terrible invention, when we in England have had regional planning functions for decades. Even in the past, the county structure plans were drafted within a strategic planning context set by regional planning guidance. In one form or another, it has always been the position that we need co-ordination at a national, regional and local level if we are to ensure that the homes that people need to live in are developed, and that jobs in the construction industry are protected. I apologise again to the hon. Member for West Suffolk for not being able to comment in detail on the development about which he is concerned, and I thank him again for securing the debate. Question put and agreed to.