Ben Bradshaw Secretary for State for Culture Media and Sport and Jonathan Stephens, Permanent Secretary, gave evidence on the DCMS annual report and accounts 2008-9 before the CMS Select Committee on 20 October, Heritage Link reports. Questioned on the effort made to secure the Heritage Bill the Secretary of State did not hold out any hope of the Bill being published before the General Election. ‘That does not mean, however, that we have not been able to make progress on many of the issues that you highlighted in your report on heritage both on the public policy statement, on planning, on the vision statement which my colleague Margaret Hodge will be publishing shortly and a number of the other issues that you highlighted in your Select Committee Report’. He offered to write formally to the Committee ‘outlining exactly what we have already done and what we propose to do without the need for primary legislation to deliver it’.
MPs also raised the issues around PPS15 such as the language relating to the abandoned Bill and that ‘heritage does not seem to carry much weight in the draft (PPS) and it seems to be rather more of a developer’s charter than a protector of the historic environment.’ Jonathan Stephens replied that what he was trying to do was to reflect the development of policy along with our heritage advisers in English Heritage, many positive developments that have taken place which allow for positive development and preservation of listed buildings and their return into current and appropriate use. He disputed that the Department should have relied on wider input rather than principally on English Heritage saying that the PPS had followed on a very extensive consultation process. These quotes come from the uncorrected evidence
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