She spoke out after a major study into the issue concluded it is not a problem throughout the UK and there has not been a major increase in developments.
She said communities minister John Healey is ‘simply in denial about how his policies give a green light for garden grabbing’.
He replied: “The research and the facts do not bear out her assertion or her concerns.
“This is a problem in some areas, but they are clearly in the minority.
“It is also clear, as the report confirms, that councils have the powers to deal with such matters where they present a problem for neighbours and are unwelcome in the local area.”
Yet Mrs Spelman said: “Why cannot Ministers just admit that the blight of garden grabbing is the fault of this Labour Government?
“The Government, not councils, made gardens count as brown field for planning purposes.
“Is it not time for change-time councils had proper powers to protect neighbourhoods from inappropriate developments?”
Yet Mr Healey said Mrs Spelman is ‘wrong again’ and the brown field ruling was set under Conservative governments in the 1980s and 1990s.
He said: “The problem, I am afraid to say, is councils that have the powers but will not accept the responsibility of taking the decisions to protect local people and defending those decisions on appeal.”
He said there needed to be ‘proper’ plans established by councils which would make it easier to fight developers.
He said: “The hon. Lady would do better to address her concerns to her own councils, which are falling far short of what local residents expect of them.”
Solihull Conservatives this month cited a plan to knock down two semi-detached houses for 10 flats as an example of ‘garden grabbing’.
Tory-run Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council contributed to the report.
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