Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Smith Excerpts

Monday 13th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

It is anything but a dishonest concoction. As I have said, grey-belt land is determined by local planning authorities where it does not meet the purposes of the green belt, as set out. I come back to the question of what the hon. Gentleman is saying: is he saying that our strategic and targeted approach to the green belt should be replaced by the chaotic and haphazard approach that the previous Government took, under which we saw swathes of green-belt land released across the country, often in the wrong areas? The grey belt is ensuring that the right kind of low-quality green-belt land is released where all other options have been exhausted and where need for housing needs to be met through that avenue.

[Sarah Smith (Hyndburn) (Lab)]

15. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of Pride in Place funding on levels of community cohesion in Hyndburn constituency.

[The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed)]

The Pride in Place programme supports community cohesion by backing locally led change—local people coming together, whatever their background, to determine their own priorities for putting pride back at the heart of their community.

[Sarah Smith]

I have established a Get Hyndburn Working group, which is bringing together local organisations, schools, the Department for Work and Pensions, voluntary sector organisations, the college and our training providers to tackle economic inactivity and look at the high levels of our young people who are out of work, training and education. Does the Minister agree that Pride in Place funding could play a key role in supporting these place-based, collective approaches to tackling such issues?

[Steve Reed]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on bringing that working group together. That is an excellent use of her role as a Member of Parliament to support her community to have a bigger say, and to enable them to share their ideas and creativity about how to tackle local priorities in the circumstances she is talking about—the important matter of getting people into work and guaranteeing them a better future.