Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will delay proposals to build on the green belt in Blaydon constituency until after the publication of Household Projections 2012 to 2037.

There are no central Government proposals to build on the Green Belt in Blaydon. The Government revoked Regional Strategies and their top-down housing targets to ensure Councils are best placed to work out, with their communities, what housing is needed and where it should go.

The National Planning Policy Framework retains strong protections for the Green Belt. Most types of new building are inappropriate in Green Belt and, by definition, harmful to it. A local authority may alter a Green Belt boundary only in exceptional circumstances, through the Local Plan process. Our guidance of October 2014 reaffirms this protection (www.gov.uk/government/news/councils-must-protect-our-precious-green-belt-land)