Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of (a) the arrangements for plan making at (i) borough and (ii) neighbourhood level and (b) the reduction in five year land supply to below a qualifying threshold of 80% on the target for (A) Cheshire West and Chester and (B) other boroughs that will not have a transitional period.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government’s Plan for Change includes an ambitious milestone of delivering 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament.
Delivering on that milestone requires local planning authorities to plan for sufficient homes, as well as commercial development and wider infrastructure, through their local development plans.
Local plans clearly spell out to developers and communities where development will and will not take place, bringing certainty to all parties. They are also the mechanism through which local communities can have their say in how homes are built.
The government inherited a planning system in which only 31% of local planning authorities have adopted plans in the last five years. That is not sustainable, and I am clear that it is unacceptable for local planning authorities to not make a local plan.
We are determined to drive local plans to adoption as quickly as possible, to progress towards our ambition of achieving universal plan coverage and ensure plans contribute positively to our ambition of delivering 1.5 million homes.
To that end, the transitional arrangements contained within the revised National Planning Policy Framework published on 12 December 2024 mad clear that plans which are submitted for examination on or before 12 March 2025 would continue to be examined under the relevant previous version of the NPPF.
However, where the draft housing requirement in the plan to be adopted meets less than 80% of local housing need, the authority will be expected to begin working on a new plan, as soon as the new plan-making system is brought into force this summer/autumn, to address the shortfall in housing need.
For plans at an earlier stage of plan making, the policies of the revised NPPF apply, including revised Local Housing Need figures.
The government has provided in excess of £29 million to local planning authorities this year to support them to get plans in place as soon as possible.
We want to work in partnership with local planning authorities to deliver for their communities, but where they fail to do so the Deputy Prime Minister will make use of the intervention powers available to her to get local plans in place.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure that people living in rural (a) communities and (b) villages will be able to contribute to planning decisions, in the context of the national scheme of delegation.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Following the introduction of a national scheme of delegation, people living in rural communities and villages will continue to be able to make representations on individual planning applications, irrespective of who the decision maker is.
On 28 May 2025, the government published a technical consultation on reform of planning committees. The consultation is open until 23 July 2025 and can be found on gov.uk here.
We welcome responses from people living in rural communities and villages, and their elected representatives.
Asked by: Aphra Brandreth (Conservative - Chester South and Eddisbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the national scheme of delegation on people living in rural (a) communities and (b) villages.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Following the introduction of a national scheme of delegation, people living in rural communities and villages will continue to be able to make representations on individual planning applications, irrespective of who the decision maker is.
On 28 May 2025, the government published a technical consultation on reform of planning committees. The consultation is open until 23 July 2025 and can be found on gov.uk here.
We welcome responses from people living in rural communities and villages, and their elected representatives.