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5.41 pm
Mr. Crispin Blunt (Reigate): I apologise for my absence during part of the debate. I was with the Defence Committee at an informal session with General Sir Michael Jackson, as part of the beginning of our inquiry into Kosovo.
I commend the hon. Member for Hamilton, South (Mr. Tynan) on his maiden speech. I am afraid that I missed the speech of the hon. Member for Wigan (Mr. Turner) but, like everyone in the House, I mourn the passing of Roger Stott, not least because I hope to inherit his duties as treasurer of the Lords and Commons cricket club. I suspect that there may not be too many candidates in that election. I only hope that I can bowl half as well as he did.
I share some of the sentiments of the hon. Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Mr. Shaw), especially about the public service performed by local government officers. I take my hat off to him for his work as a child protection officer. All those involved in such duties do an immensely difficult job and he is right to say that we owe them a
debt of thanks. I do not agree, however, that there is a need for yet more change in local government. The hon. Gentleman supports a Government who have become expert in reforming bureaucratic structures and imposing new ones.
I warmly welcomed the Deputy Prime Minister's remarks about the need to protect the quality of life of the citizens whom we all represent. There are great challenges to that quality of life in my constituency and in many others in the south-east. When I was first adopted as the prospective parliamentary candidate for Reigate, it was my perception that the key question for the constituency would be the environment, and how we are to protect and sustain it for future generations.
The central and most important issue is housing. We are now faced with the appalling prospect of another1.1 million houses in the south-east by 2016, of which Reigate's share would be 10,000. Even on the Serplan figures, Reigate would have to put up with 6,000 more houses. We are already part of the way through the previous part of this exercise, which began in 1991 when the numbers were laid down.
Happily, the area along the southern boundary of my constituency is all green belt, but all the green fields are now part of something called the Horley masterplan and the farms will be built on right up to the limit of the green belt. Unsurprisingly, the people who live in the area are deeply unimpressed.
This question is of central importance. I agree with the article in The Independent today, which says that the Deputy Prime Minister's decision about the Crow report and the regional planning guidance as a whole for south-east England
We face hideous congestion. My hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames) referred to "carmageddon", and the word sums up the position. The widening of the M25 has only just been completed, under plans from the previous Government. These days, as soon as the M25 gets snarled up, my constituency knows all about it. The A25 is packed solid; anyone who travels down Reigate hill regularly will understand the problem.
A large proportion of my constituents commute to London by train. We know that the rail network needs investment--in its capability, quality and capacity. Not least, it needs to be made easier for people to use. Ideas such as creating greater car parking at key transport nodes, such as the railway stations in my constituency and elsewhere, are vital.
There are other environmental threats to my constituency. The prospect of a second runway at Gatwick airport was formally outlawed under an agreement between Gatwick and the local authority. However, the Government's suspension of planning permission for Crawley to build houses under what might conceivably be
the flight path over a second runway gives us great cause for concern that the Government may overturn the legal agreement between Gatwick and its neighbours. I warn the Government that if they do that, there will be enormous opposition from everyone living there. It is enough that Gatwick's capacity will increase from 28 million to 40 million passengers a year. To believe that that part of the world can cope with 80 million passengers a year is to live in cloud cuckoo land.
My constituency is faced with the prospect of a plant making energy from waste being built next door to a landfill site. That will give Redhill the huge privilegeof dealing with all Surrey's domestic waste. That environmental issue has certainly excited the concern of the people whom I represent.
I receive endless letters about the masts put up by the new telecommunications networks. This is an issue concerning the quality of life--the visual environment is being affected by such things ending up all over the place. People feel that they have no control or influence over the planning process--when plans for the masts arrive, they are objected to, almost nothing happens, and up they go. Imagine my delight, therefore, when the Deputy Prime Minister made quality of life his central theme. The three central measures that the right hon. Gentleman outlined at the beginning of his speech--as in the Queen's Speech--were the modernisation of local government and of the public transport system and the provision of access to the countryside.
Let us consider modernising local government. The local government organisations and standards Bill is about structure; it is about offering more options regarding the style of local government that my constituents will enjoy. It will provide a directly elected mayor, a cabinet system with a leader, or directly elected mayors with council managers, and future models will allow the Secretary of State to add to that list.
I say to the Government, "Enough. We have all done it--Conservative and Labour Governments alike." Every time we think there is a problem with local government, we tear it up, peer at the roots and then replant it in a slightly different way. The previous Conservative Government were as responsible for doing that as the Labour Government are now. It is about time we tried to make the system that we have work better. We in this House are vested with our people's sovereignty; this is a representative democracy, and power and responsibility stop here.
It is up to us to hold the Government to account, but we are in danger of not applying the same principle to local authorities. People understand that they are represented locally by their councillors. It should be up to councils and councillors to choose how to organise their affairs, and we should devolve power to them. Councillors should decide whether they want an elected mayor. The principles that we apply to the House of Commons should apply to local councils so that people may hold councillors directly to account. We should not try to impose yet another new management system from the centre. Let us be serious about devolving authority.
Government has become hideously complex. Even as a professional politician, I find it difficult to grasp the variety of agencies responsible for carrying out functions for my constituents. The quangocracy has gone mad, and there are chairmen of a vast number of authorities. The hon.
Member for Chatham and Aylesford (Mr. Shaw) is nodding at that--like many Members, he appreciates how difficult it is to nail down who is responsible when something goes wrong, or even right. It is hard to find out who we may wish to influence on particular decisions.
Let me give an example of why, in the interests of our quality of life, we must devolve authority to local government. A tidal wave of houses threatens my constituency and 116 more in the south-east. Local people should be able to choose between economic growth and quality of life. They are in the best position to make those judgments. If they want more jobs and more wealth generation, they will choose a relaxed planning system that will encourage businesses. If, alternatively, they feel that they will be overwhelmed, they will be more restrictive. The power should lie with them.
As regards the Government's approach to the modernisation of the public transport system, I am astonished by the lessons that they seem to have drawn from the experience of the past 18 years. They say that the Conservatives spent £70 billion on roads, but that congestion increased from 70 cars per mile to 100. They seem to have drawn the conclusion that they do not need to spend money as it clearly does not solve the problem. If we had not spent that money, however, the problem would be infinitely worse. The Government's conclusion is completely wrong.
In my constituency, for example, the M23-A23 interchange is hopelessly inadequate. It dropped off the roads programme some time during the Conservative period in office, but all that we want is a small road at the junction so that people do not have to make a highly dangerous U-turn. Officers from the Highways Agency have visited the local authority to discuss the scheme, but the agency has only £3 million to spend on schemes for the whole of the south of England. It is hardly surprising that our scheme never got near completion. There is simply not enough money in the roads programme, and someone will die as a result.
A further quality of life issue relating to roads is noise, which intrudes greatly into people's lives. A section of the M25 runs past some of my constituents' homes. It has been expanded, but expanded in concrete. Local people are desperate for a tarmac surface that would improve their quality of life by reducing the constant noise from the motorway. Again, there is no money.
As president of Reigate and Redhill rail users association--a wise post to hold given the number of commuters in my constituency--I have found that the privatised rail companies make serious efforts to listento representations by me and other rail users' representatives.
Part of the problem that I now see with the Strategic Rail Authority is that the confusion of responsibilities will grow--confusion between the Government, who have significant powers to direct the authority, the authority itself, and the rail companies. It is bad enough at the moment trying to get Railtrack and the operating companies to agree which of them is making the noise when noisy trains disturb my constituents.
The operating companies say that the problem is duff railway lines, while Railtrack says that the operating companies are running their trains on square wheels--"flats", as they are known in the trade. I am not in a position to judge, but if one goes on at them long enough,
they can come to an understanding. Railtrack has started to take responsibility, and I am delighted to say that, having been nagged by me, it has finally promised to lay a newer design of line to reduce the noise and improve the quality of life for my constituents who live nearby.
"may be the most fateful decision ever taken about the English landscape."
I agree with the Council for the Protection of Rural England, when it refers to a nightmare future of sprawling development, traffic congestion and urban decay. I agree with the chairman of the environmental services committee of my county council, who describes the plans as "sheer madness". I also agree with the chairman of Buckinghamshire county council that the plans "beggar belief".
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