CALLS to scrap a controversial planning strategy which could see 33,000 homes built in South Gloucestershire have won the backing of a senior MP.

Grant Shapps MP, the Shadow minister for housing, announced he would bin the Regional Spatial Strategy (RSS) if the Conservatives win the next general election during a visit to the area.

Mr Shapps, Conservative MP for Welwyn Hatfield, said he opposed plans for 1,000 homes off St John’s Way in Chipping Sodbury and that local people should decide where the homes are built.

He said: "This discredited document is actually preventing communities from getting on and building the homes the area needs.

"I back South Gloucestershire Council’s calls for the Government to scrap the RSS now. If the Government does not then I want to assure South Gloucestershire residents that a future Conservative Government will do so and allow local people to decide where new homes should go."

He added: "We will use cash incentives to encourage new homes to be built in a way that protects the environment and provides the infrastructure to support local communities, rather than letting unelected quangos impose unsustainable development on communities."

The spatial strategy is in the hands of Minister for Housing John Denham, who will decide whether recommendations for the 33,000 homes should go ahead. However, an announcement has been delayed following a legal challenge over a similar strategy for the East of England.

South Gloucestershire councillor Matthew Riddle (Con, Severn), who launched the No Way To 33K campaign against such huge-scale development, said: "It is the continuing existence of the RSS that convinces some developers that they can push through unsustainable and damaging planning applications like the sort that we are seeing in Chipping Sodbury.

"No green field is safe under the Government’s plans and I am delighted that Mr Shapps is backing our calls for the RSS to be scrapped and for housing and planning powers to be returned to local communities, which is where they belong.

"I hope that the other parties on the council will also support this because it will send an important message to Government ministers that we are united against their harmful plans."

A motion calling for all three parties on South Gloucestershire Council to agree to abolishing the RSS will be presented to the next full council meeting on Wednesday, November 25.