Built Environment Sector

Lord Wallace of Saltaire Excerpts

Tuesday 28th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

My noble friend raises an interesting point, which I suspect has been raised in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, but it is not one that I can respond to at this point. I apologise for that, but I will also follow up with him afterwards.

[Lord Wallace of Saltaire (LD)]

My Lords, may I ask about density of housing in the new built environment? I declare an interest: I live in a village that is almost entirely terraced housing and is therefore extremely dense, with a park and allotments round it so that there is public space. I am very struck that all the new developments I see up and down the valleys of west Yorkshire are spread out. This means that access to public transport, shops, et cetera, and normal social life, are much more difficult, because developers prefer to build separate houses for better-off people. Do the Government have a strategy towards density as a way of resisting the spread of housing across green spaces?

[Baroness Lloyd of Effra (Lab)]

The noble Lord raises some very interesting observations on density in the UK and in his local area. This is probably something that local planning authorities and developers are best placed to opine on, in consultation and taking into account the local area. One thing that the New Towns Taskforce stressed when coming up with its report was the importance of place and character. That is a really good basis for carrying on those discussions about the nature of communities and how they can really solidify around a physical space.