UK Parliament / Open data

Neighbourhood Planning Bill

Proceeding contribution from Baroness Cumberlege (Conservative) in the House of Lords on Thursday, 23 February 2017. It occurred during Debate on bills on Neighbourhood Planning Bill.

My Lords, we have had examples of new developments that were produced centuries ago, in the 1800s or whatever. I think we should look to today. Poundbury near Dorchester is a very interesting new development. Of course, it has a very distinguished landowner, and I am sure he or his people negotiated extremely well with the local authority. My nephew lives there, so I know it quite well. There is a variety of housing there, which is a good start for a community. It was phased—it was grown over time. Critically, it has employment; it is not a dormitory. It has Dorset Cereals and all sorts of different employment opportunities. It is not all on an industrial estate that is marked “Industrial Estate” on a map. It weaves through the whole of that village and community—that growing little town. We must think seriously about this issue in our planning; otherwise, as I have said before—I apologise for repeating it—we

are going to have a Secretary of State not for communities but for dormitories. We should avoid that. We should be building proper communities, and proper communities have employment.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
779 c464 
Session
2016-17
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords chamber
Back to top