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		Spanish land relief for British expats Thursday, 24th November 2005 Brussels - Cross-party cooperation between British Conservative and Labour MEPs in the European Parliament today could help provide relief for thousands of British and East Midlands home owners in Spain. More than 100,000 British people buy homes in Spain each year, but under the terms of the Spain's 1994 LRAU law, owners of a property classified as “newly urbanisable” had been forced to contribute huge sums of money for unnecessary infrastructure projects, or to have extensive building work carried out at short notice, or even had their homes or gardens confiscated. Allegations of incompetence, corruption and intimidation are also rife as unscrupulous Spanish property developers seek to benefit from the uneven enforcement of the law. Now, following today's cross party co-operation in the European parliament's Petitions Committee, their problems could be resolved. The votes toughened a parliamentary report calling for action by the European Commission against the Spanish government. A Commission spokesman confirmed that they were indeed pursuing a case against Spain. A representative of the Spanish government said that they were hurriedly introducing a revised law, but the Commission insisted that even the revised law failed to resolve the problem, and the case would go ahead to the European Court of Justice. Speaking from Brussels in the wake of the votes, East Midlands Conservative MEP Roger Helmer, a member of the Petitions Committee said: “I have been very concerned about the treatment of British retirees and property owners in Spain, many of whom are from the East Midlands, and I am delighted to have an opportunity of doing something to help resolve their problems. I rarely find myself voting the same way as Labour MEPs, but happily on this occasion our interests, and those of our constituents, coincided”.