PRESSED by Mr James Dance, MP for Redd-itch and Bromsgrove, to make a statement in the House of Commons last week about the Govern-ment’s policy on the expansion of Birmingham into the Green Belt area of Wythall and Solihull, Mr Henry Brooke, minister of housing and local government, declined to do so on the grounds that it would pre-judge any decision he might have to make on a planning application for the district later in the year.

In the course of his reply to the points made in the debate, Mr Brooke said: “Around all great cities, green belts now restrain industrial development.

“However prosperous a city is, it is not permitted that industries shall sprawl out and out, drawing more and more people into the nucleus.

“Permission to use 592 acres for industry on the Warwickshire side of Birmingham was refused between 1950 and 1957.

“On the Staffordshire side, 367 acres were withheld from industrial use since 1955.