I was fortunate to have the opportunity to met David Cameron when he made a short visit to Vent Axia in Manor Royal with our MP Henry Smith last week. Mr Cameron was en route to the World Economic Forum at Davos.
At the Forum Mr Cameron outlined how British companies which transferred jobs abroad are coming back to the UK and around 1,500 manufacturing jobs which moved offshore to cut production costs have been brought back to the UK since 2011. Textiles, software production, call centers and company headquarters have also returned and he plans to build on this “small but discernible trend where some jobs that were once off-shore are coming back from East to West.”
The Council has been working towards the submission of the Local Plan which is a significant strategic document covering Crawley's future up to the year 2030. This is reflected in the fact that no fewer than six amendments were debated at the December 2013 Full Council. That fact, together with comments from the public and in the media, shows the considerable and understandable interest in this document. Therefore we have decided to give further consideration on how to take the Local Plan forward.
This is set against the recent news that the Mid Sussex Local Plan was rejected by the Government's Planning Inspector because it had failed to meet the duty to co-operate with other local authorities. This means they have also been told to look at how they can help meet the housing needs generated by neighbouring councils. Additionally we are aware that Brighton and Hove City Council were told by the Government's Planning Inspector to look again at finding more housing sites to meet their local housing requirements. I recently attended a meeting with Nick Boles MP who is a planning Minister in the Department for Communities and Local Government. It was made clear that all councils in the region are required to find more land for housing and this is being treated as a major priority.
We have the very important budget debate coming to the next Full Council on the 26th February. Given the importance of the Local Plan, we are looking to bring this back to the Council in the next few months which will allow for further public debate and discussion on this subject.
Councillor Dr Howard Bloom, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
26th January 2014