Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Oral Answers to Questions

Mims Davies Excerpts
Monday 24th April 2017

(7 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sajid Javid Portrait Sajid Javid
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First, may I commend my hon. Friend on his work to highlight abuses? I know that he shares my concern about where houses are sold on leasehold. That is an unacceptable practice and we will do something about it.

Mims Davies Portrait Mims Davies (Eastleigh) (Con)
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The leader of the Conservative group in Eastleigh has questioned the methodology behind the plan for an extra 10,000 homes, which could threaten 400-year-old ancient woodland. Without a local plan, and when ancient woodland is under threat, how can housing numbers be verified?

Lord Barwell Portrait Gavin Barwell
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I hope that the housing White Paper will help my hon. Friend, who is passionate about protecting ancient woodland in her constituency, in two regards. First, the new standard methodology will give a much clearer indication of the real level of housing need in her area. Secondly, we propose to increase the protections of ancient woodland, which is a precious resource that we have inherited from previous generations and that cannot be easily replaced. It is right that we strengthen the protection.