Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what resources they are making available to support training and resourcing for artificial intelligence and large language models in planning departments for the purpose of (1) assessing good design, and (2) boosting productivity in those departments and local authorities.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.
We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.
My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have made an assessment of the research by Create Streets, AI Judging Architecture for Well-Being: Large Language Models Simulate Human Empathy and Predict Public Preference, published on 13 October, for the purpose of supporting the use of good design in the planning system.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.
We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.
My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage the use of artificial intelligence by planning departments and local authorities to support good design.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government is committed to building more high-quality, well-designed, and sustainable homes and places. There is a clear framework through policy and guidance on how to achieve well-designed places in plan making and decision making, and the principles of good design are set out in national design guidance. We will be publishing updated guidance in due course. We are also exploring the role of digital tools to support local planning authorities to deliver good design through the planning system.
We support the responsible integration of AI across local government operations and services to reduce costs, drive efficiencies and improve service outcomes.
My department is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) Incubator for AI (i.AI) to deliver the ‘Extract’ product, which uses AI to transform planning information and maps from PDFs into data. This will unlock data, which can be made available on planning.data.gov.uk, to power innovation, analysis and new types of planning software. We intend to make this product available for all local authorities in England during 2026. We are developing Extract to make it as intuitive as possible to all users, to encourage greater adoption. As a vital part of our commitment to developing AI-enabled products responsibly, we are also identifying and meeting the need for AI literacy and training among users in local planning authorities.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their target for the New Homes Accelerator for each year of the current Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The New Homes Accelerator (NHA) is a collaboration between the government, Homes England, the Greater London Authority (GLA), local authorities, developers, and other key stakeholders. It aims to unblock and accelerate the delivery of housing developments that have for various reasons become delayed, or which are not progressing as quickly as they could be. The NHA is helping to progress large development sites across the country by providing site-specific support and also addressing system-wide constraints.
Since July 2024, the NHA has announced 16 sites for site-specific support, with combined capacity for c. 48,600 homes, that will benefit from government support. To date, through our engagement with statutory consultees and arms-length bodies, we have unblocked nearly 100,000 homes.
The programme is constantly exploring new issues and blockers to address, which will determine the NHA’s level of impact. The NHA continues to work with Homes England, the GLA and other partner bodies to expand the programme’s capacity and impact over this current Parliament.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their target for housing delivery in the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This government is committed to delivering 1.5 million homes over this Parliament as set out in our Plan for Change. These will be high-quality, well-designed homes, supported by the necessary infrastructure, where people can thrive. In January, the Chancellor confirmed that the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor is a key economic priority for the country and we are working with local authorities across the region to help them do their part in planning for ambitious housing delivery.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what budget was allocated to the Office for Place during its existence, and what (1) budget, and (2) Civil Service headcount, they have allocated to the functions of oversight of design quality in new developments now that they have closed the Office for Place.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We want exemplary development to be the norm and not the exception – this is the focus of teams across the Department. MHCLG’s design and placemaking policy team is comprised of 13 civil servants, including five staff who were redeployed from the Office for Place. The team is working across the Department to embed good design within housing and planning policy, and we will be publishing updated national design guidance later this year.
An additional five staff from the Office for Place were redeployed onto housing delivery to support efforts to improve the quality of new development. We can confirm that all staff who were working directly on Office for Place activities were transferred to MHCLG or their home departments. The Office for Place annual report and accounts are available on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many new homes are currently being prevented from being built in Greater Cambridge due to water scarcity, and how many of these homes will be built following the introduction of the water credits system.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
No new homes in Cambridge are currently blocked due to water scarcity issues. Our work with the Water Scarcity Group has unblocked over 9,000 homes and over 500,000sqm of commercial space, and in December 2024, the Environment Agency lifted its objections to remaining blocked development following improvements to Cambridge Water’s Water Resource Management Plan and progress made by the Water Scarcity Group.
The Government is continuing to progress work to deliver water savings and develop a water credits scheme, to ensure that development between now and 2032 (when new water resources are delivered) can proceed. Further details will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many homes they estimate London will contribute to their target of 1.5 million new builds in each year of the current Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The government has set an ambitious target of 88,000 new homes per year in London through the new standard method and remains committed to working in partnership with the London Mayor, boroughs, and wider stakeholders to achieve a step change in building in the capital.
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many homes have been delivered in London over the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Total housing supply in London amounted to 191,103 net additional dwellings (for the period 2019-20 to 2023-24).
Asked by: Baroness Maclean of Redditch (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to change the planning system in (1) London, and (2) England and Wales, to make it easier for small housebuilders to obtain planning permission.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On 28 May 2025, the government published the Planning Reform Working Paper: Reforming Site Thresholds (which can be found on gov.uk here) which seeks views on taking a gradated approach to the system as a whole – removing and streamlining disproportionate requirements on small and medium sites, while maintaining and strengthening requirements on major development. We are currently considering the responses received to the working paper.
The revised National Planning Policy Framework, published on 12 December 2024, also strengthened the wording around small site allocation for SME housebuilders and includes measures designed to promote mixed tenure development.
Housing is a devolved matter and it is for the Welsh Government to decide what reforms to bring forward in Wales.