Housing minister John Healey is taking steps to reassure residents of council powers to refuse ‘garden grabbing’ developments - a move welcomed by the town’s MP. Mr Healey has agreed to ‘strengthen’ the national planning policy, to clarify the ability of councils to refuse planning permission for house-building in the gardens of existing homes. Stafford’s MP told the Post some people believe that because the building work counts as ‘brown field development’, councils have to allow it. “The Government has made clear that this is not so,” Mr Kidney said. The housing minister has also agreed to write to all councils to clarify the policy. Mr Kidney added: “Housing Minister John Healey MP published research on the nature and extent of development on garden land. “The research finds that problems with inappropriate building on back gardens is not a widespread, national or growing problem. It shows that councils can already deals successfully with unwanted applications for garden development through specific local policies. The report reveals that the Planning Inspectorate supports around four out of five of the decisions made by local authorities on such land – especially where local policies are in place. “The Housing Minister has agreed to strengthen the national Planning Policy Statement 3 to make clear that there is no presumption that land that is previously developed is suitable for development or that all of the curtilage should be developed.” | 
