Day: January 18, 2018

The Foreign Office Minister for Asia and the Pacific Minister Mark Field will today (18 January) begin a two day visit to New York, where he will represent the UK at the UN Security Council. On Thursday he will deliver a statement on counter-proliferation and on Friday attend the council meeting on Afghanistan.

During his visit the Minister will also meet with the Afghanistan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Khalil Karzai, host a meeting on climate change with Commonwealth countries and meet with representatives from the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Speaking ahead of his visit Minister Field said;

The UK remains committed to a world without nuclear weapons. We believe the best way to achieve this goal is through gradual multilateral disarmament, negotiated step-by-step, within existing frameworks.

With our international partners we must continue to prevent proliferation and must hold to account states that breach our rules.

On the Afghanistan meeting the Minister said;

Afghanistan is making real progress in overcoming many challenges. However, there is still work to be done to help Afghanistan’s government and people achieve their goal of building a more stable and prosperous country.

The UK continues to play our part in supporting this goal. We have committed up to £750 million for the four years up to 2020 to support the Afghan Government’s work to improve security, reduce poverty, and increase access to health and education.

This UN Security Council meeting will be a chance to, collectively and individually, express our full support for the efforts of the Afghan government to take forward a peace process, which will be vital for Afghanistan’s long term stability.

Further information

• Follow Foreign Office Minister Mark Field @MarkFieldUK
• Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter @foreignoffice and Facebook
• Follow the Foreign Office on Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn

The Cabinet Office has announced today that the Prime Minister has appointed Jonathan Baume, Dr. Susan Liautaud and Richard Thomas as Members of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, with effect from 1 February 2018.

Housing developers building new homes near music venues should be responsible for addressing noise issues in a move to protect both music venues and their neighbours, the Housing Secretary has said.

With late-night venues and community sports clubs being forced to make high cost changes following when new residents move into the area, Mr Javid has committed to working closely with the music industry to help strengthen planning policy.

The National Planning Policy Framework, which local authorities are legally bound to comply with, will now be clarified to include a specific mention of the ‘Agent of Change’ principle, and will be consulted on in spring.

The move means developers will be responsible for identifying and solving any sound problems, if granted permission to build, and avoid music venues, community and sports clubs and even churches running into expensive issues as a result of complaints from new neighbours.

Housing Secretary Sajid Javid said:

Music venues play a vital role in our communities, bringing people together and contributing to the local economy and supporting the country’s grass roots music culture.

I have always thought it unfair that the burden is on long-standing music venues to solve noise issues when property developers choose to build nearby.

That’s why I consulted on this in February last year as part of the housing white paper. I am pleased to finally have an opportunity to right this wrong and also give more peace of mind to new residents moving into local properties.

With strong backing from the music industry including the Music Venue Trust, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been working with John Spellar MP following his private member’s bill on this subject to ensure that planning policy reflects what the industry needs.

Further information

The government consulted on a proposal to amend national planning policy to give greater emphasis to this matter as part of the housing white paper published on 7 February 2017.

The proposal was that planning policies and decisions should take account of existing businesses and other organisations, such as churches, community pubs and music venues, when locating new development nearby and, where necessary, to mitigate the impact of noise and other potential nuisances arising from existing development.

This will be incorporated into the updated National Planning Policy Framework.