New Housing Developments in Cheadle: Infrastructure

13. What steps he plans to take to ensure that new housing developments in Cheadle constituency have adequate access to infrastructure.

As per my answer to question 4, the changes that we made to national planning policy last year were intended to support the increased provision and modernisation of various types of public infrastructure. When it comes to ensuring that necessary infrastructure is funded and brought forward in Cheadle or any other part of the country, we look to local development plans and infrastructure funding statements to address needs and opportunities.

Residents in Cheadle have contacted me about the huge number of speculative development applications coming through, particularly in Cheadle Hulme and Woodford. We are now being told that a 10,000-home new town will potentially be situated on the constituency border. GPs are completely oversubscribed in Woodford, we have not had a Sunday rail service in over a year, and the bus services are completely inadequate. This has been raised time and again by my constituents. Will the Minister meet me and the leader of Stockport council to talk about this issue, and how the Government can get developers to start investing in infrastructure before they develop homes?

The hon. Gentleman has raised a number of issues. The best way in which local planning authorities can protect themselves from speculative development is to have an up-to-date local development plan in place. He touched on developer contributions; we remain committed to strengthening the existing system to ensure that new developments provide the necessary affordable homes and infrastructure. We will set out further details in due course.

When it comes to the prospective new town that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, I gently point out that it was not the Government but the independent, expert new towns taskforce that recommended to the Government that Adlington and 11 other locations in England should be the sites for the next generation of new town. On 28 September, we commenced a strategic environmental assessment to understand the environmental implications of new towns, and that will support final decisions. But no final decisions have yet been taken.

Order. I should say that that is the Adlington in Cheshire, not Lancashire.