Planning Permission

Baroness Pinnock Excerpts

Tuesday 15th December 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I am very glad that the Question is not about Schengen, by the way; I would have struggled.

On planning decisions being made by officials, provisions have always been in place that officials can take certain decisions, particularly where they are uncontentious. However, the localising of planning decision-making through neighbourhood plans and local plans has made for happier communities that are far more likely to go along with planning decisions when they are made.

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, in my small town in West Yorkshire, there are four planning consents for more than 500 houses awaiting development. In some cases, they have been awaiting development for more than two years. Does the Minister agree that because they are on brownfield sites, which are clearly more expensive to develop, the Government’s apparent commitment to developing brownfield sites first is barely credible when developers can wait for green land relief, where the profit margins are greater?