Sir Michael Spicer MP and Harriett Baldwin have today issued the following joint statement in reaction to the announcement of the draft South Worcestershire Joint Core Strategy.

"An incoming Conservative government would end this top-down, Stalinist approach to housing development by ending the Regional Spatial Strategies and by abolishing the unelected, unaccountable regional assemblies. The current Labour government cannot predict what is going to happen tomorrow. How can they predict what Worcestershire's housing needs will be in the next twenty years? Of course, we want our towns to grow. We want new homes built so that our children can afford to stay in the area. However, it should be local districts, towns and parishes that make housing decisions. They should not be forced on the area by a centralising Labour government."