Oral Answers to Questions

Kelly Tolhurst Excerpts

Wednesday 8th June 2022 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

Actually, I can tell the hon. Gentleman that 91% of people are getting their passports within six weeks, and we are putting hundreds and hundreds more staff members into the Passport Office. The strength of demand, by the way, is a sign of the robustness of the economy, because everybody is wanting to go on holiday, and quite right too.

When it comes to travel chaos, may I ask whether we have yet heard any condemnation from the Opposition of the RMT and its reckless and wanton strike? What about that?

[Kelly Tolhurst (Rochester and Strood) (Con)]

Q14.   As my right hon. Friend knows, my constituency is facing unrealistic housing targets, which is putting pressure on the council to try to develop a local plan that would close a successful working docks and mean the loss of beloved open spaces such as Deangate Ridge, all in the name of meeting an arbitrary target. Can he reassure my constituents who are facing this level of over- development that there will be greater flexibility in respect of housing numbers, so that the council can produce a local plan that delivers appropriate housing while protecting important sites such as those?

[The Prime Minister]

I know that my hon. Friend speaks for colleagues up and down the country. We want to make sure that councils are able to build in the right place and sensitively to local needs. That is what we insist on, but I want to make it absolutely clear that part of the genius of levelling up is that it will encourage us to take some of the pressure and heat out of the south-east of England, which has been overburdened for decades, and we can do it.