Caroline Spelman, West Midlands Conservative MP, former secretary of state and co architect of the NPPF, is cool on whether the new West Midlands Combined Authority will be a positive force for the region.
Speaking exclusively to Estates Gazette, the now backbench MP says: “I think it can work if they [the local authorities] want it to. If it’s imposed on them, as was the case with the RDA, I don’t think it will work. They’re making a choice.”
Spelman’s biggest beef is with the (in her view) disproportionately large influence that Labour-controlled Birmingham wields in the region. She is fond of quoting Sir Bob Kerslake’s observation from the independent report he published on the local authority last December – that the city’s size is “both a badge and a barrier”.
Birmingham’s dominance, she suggests, is an issue when it comes to developing a Midlands powerhouse.
“The surrounding authorities could be forgiven for saying, ‘Ooh, do we want to join up with that?’” she says.
Meanwhile, her nearby constituency of Meriden, the epitome of Middle England, will be bisected by the high speed rail link, and Spelman is clearly uncomfortable about publicly endorsing a project that has aroused much local hostility.
At one point she catches herself saying “if” in relation to the £50bn transport scheme and rapidly corrects herself. She is happiest talking about the benefits that the interchange station, closer to her constituents, will bring, saying: “Coventry was initially resistant to HS2 because people were cross it wasn’t going to stop in Coventry, but they’ve now realised that the interchange station is equidistant between Birmingham and Coventry and actually it’s on the west side of Coventry, where there are a lot of brownfield sites, and they are now beginning to see the opportunity that could come to them with strategic development and good road connections.”
Spelman is no stranger to the planning issues that surround housing. Back in 2010, as secretary of state for the environment, she worked with planning minister Bob Neill on creating the National Planning Policy Framework.
In an exclusive EG profile, she describes coffee-fuelled days and nights condensing the existing canon of planning legislation into a compact form. To read it, click here.
