A CONTROVERSIAL growth plan for the region - rejected by an inspector - received a boost tonight (Tuesday, March 3), when a Government minister said: “The ambition is right.”

Answering a Commons debate, Penny Mordaunt distanced herself from the inspector’s verdict that the County Durham blueprint is “unrealistic” and “excessively optimistic”.

The local government minister warned that changes would have to be made – pointing, in particular, to the number of homes earmarked for the Green Belt.

But Ms Mordaunt expressed optimism that looming talks between Durham County Council and the inspectors will see the plan put into action “sooner rather than later”.

And she cheered county MPs by saying: “I don’t think there is any doubt that the ambition is the right one.

“Indeed, the figures both on jobs and inward investment that are expected are absolutely right. The issue at stake here is how that is achieved.”

Phil Wilson, the Sedgefield MP who led the debate, said: “I see it as a partial victory, because the minister is saying ‘Don’t scale down your ambition – show us your evidence’.

“I believe the county council is in a position to do that and any help the Government can give us will be welcome.”

The row reached the Commons after Harold Stephens, the planning inspector, horrified business leaders by savaging the 20-year ‘local plan’ as flawed and unrealistic.

The county council hopes to create an economic powerhouse by 2030, by delivering 30,000 new jobs, 31,400 new homes, new retail and employment land and two new bypasses.

But it was ordered back to the drawing board by the inspector – slamming the brakes on a five-year process that has cost the taxpayer several hundred thousand pounds.

At Westminster, Labour MPs tore into Mr Stephens, Mr Wilson arguing he was “bizarre” in ignoring the looming impact of the Hitachi train-assembly plant, at Newton Aycliffe.

He said: “We have an inspector from the South, saying ‘Sorry County Durham, sorry North-East – I’m not going to allow you to have your target for jobs’.

Mr Wilson said “less than four per cent” of the Green Belt would be lost, arguing: “If it’s going to achieve the number of jobs we require, then it’s a compromise well worth taking into consideration.”

And Kevan Jones, the Durham North MP, mocked the inspector by saying he would have told the designers of the 1,000-year-old Durham Cathedral they were “too ambitious”.

In reply, Ms Mordaunt pointed out that the inspector “would not have arrived at his interim findings in the absence of significant grounds for concern”.

But she said: “Let me be clear. This does not mean that the inspector has suggested Durham should be less ambitious in its plan.

“But it needs to evidence clearly why the approach it has proposed is the most appropriate strategy.”