Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2017 to Question 117145, on Aviation, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department's guidance to local planning authorities on considering the interconnectivity between airfields of different sizes and having regard to the Aviation Policy Framework.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Local planning authorities must have regard to the National Planning Policy Framework, supported by our planning practice guidance, when preparing their Local Plan. The Framework and the guidance are also material considerations in planning decisions.
It is for local planning authorities to decide how they will apply the guidance in the particular circumstances of individual planning cases and in accordance with the development plan.
My Department is working closely with the Department for Transport in looking at issues relating to general aviation, including airfields.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to make it a requirement for future housing targets to take account of the effect of additional housing on local infrastructure planning and budgets.
Answered by Lord Sharma
It is for local planning authorities to determine their housing requirements, which should be deliverable and take account of infrastructure capacity. The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that locally-produced plans should identify the development and infrastructure required in the area.
The Government is committed to ensuring the right infrastructure is in place to support communities with their housing needs. At Autumn Budget 2017 we more than doubled the Housing Infrastructure Fund to £5 billion. We also announced an additional £1.5 billion for the Home Building Fund for loans to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Custom Builders and innovators, who cannot easily access development finance.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what account his Department takes of the Government's policy on immigration in its planning for future housing needs.
Answered by Lord Sharma
We recently consulted on standardising our approach to calculating local housing need. This calculation takes into account household projections.
These projections represent the most comprehensive, evidence based, understanding of future household formation, and accounts for a forecast fall in net migration.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department analyses up-to-date population projections when formulating future housing plans.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Formulating future housing plans are the responsibility of local planning authorities through Local Plans, not my Department. We would always advocate using the latest information available to ensure they are evidence based.
In September 2017 we launched a consultation on a new standardised approach to the assessment of local housing need, which takes projections of future household growth in each area as the starting point.
These should be based on the latest Office for National Statistics population projections. Further information is available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/planning-for-the-right-homes-in-the-right-places-consultation-proposals.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government has any plans to widen the duty to cooperate to include a requirement for councils to consider together the long-term strategic function of the Green Belt and not proceed only on a site by site basis.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Many areas of Green Belt cross local authority boundaries, and the creation or alteration of Green Belt has always been a strategic matter on which all local authorities involved liaise and work together. The National Planning Policy Framework clearly expects local authorities to ensure that Green Belt is consistent with the Local Plans of adjoining areas, and that Green Belt land continues to fulfil the purposes of Green Belt.
In the Housing White Paper, Fixing our broken housing market, we proposed that a local authority should be able to adjust a Green Belt boundary only when it can show that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting identified development needs. These options are:
making effective use of suitable brownfield sites and the opportunities offered by estate regeneration
the potential offered by land which is currently underused, including surplus public sector land where appropriate
optimising the proposed density of development
exploring whether other authorities can help to meet some of the identified development requirement
My Department has been analysing the consultation responses on this proposed clarification, and will announce our conclusions as soon as possible in 2018, when we will also issue a revised National Planning Policy Framework.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, with reference to the General Aviation Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of how current planning guidance supports the Government's vision of the UK being the best place in the world for General Aviation.
Answered by Lord Sharma
The National Planning Policy Framework expects local planning authorities, when preparing their Local Plans, to take account of the role of airfields in meeting business, leisure, training and emergency service needs.
The planning practice guidance supporting the Framework was strengthened in March 2015, following publication of the General Aviation Strategy, to make clear that aviation makes a significant contribution to economic growth across the country, including in relation to small and medium sized airports and airfields.
The guidance advises that local planning authorities should consider the interconnectivity between airfields of different sizes and that they should have regard to the Aviation Policy Framework.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether his Department's policy on supporting the Green Belt has changed since his Department published its National Planning Policy Framework in 2012; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Ministers recently reaffirmed the Government’s clear manifesto commitment to maintaining the strong protections for Green Belt, which are set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework makes clear that a local authority may alter the shape of its Green Belt only in exceptional circumstances, using the Local Plan process. The Framework does not define ‘exceptional circumstances’. However, in the Housing White Paper, Fixing our broken housing market, we proposed that a local authority should be able to adjust a Green Belt boundary only when it demonstrates that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting its identified development needs, including:
- effective use of suitable brownfield land;
- the potential offered by under-used land;
- optimising the density of development; and
- exploring whether other authorities can help to meet some of the identified development requirement.
We have been analysing the consultation responses on this proposed clarification, and will announce our conclusions as soon as possible in 2018.
Since records began in 1997, Green Belt has continued to cover around 13 per cent of England, and overall we consider that national policy has successfully restrained urban sprawl. Where necessary, a local authority in consultation with the community can propose a Green Belt boundary change, as part of its Local Plan process, but the revised Plan is subject to rigorous, formal examination by a planning inspector before it is adopted.
The Framework is not law, but the law does require local authorities engaged in Plan-making to have regard to the Framework.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether local planning authorities can cite Green Belt restraints as a reason for not meeting housing targets under the Objectively Assessed Housing Need.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Ministers recently reaffirmed the Government’s clear manifesto commitment to maintaining the strong protections for Green Belt, which are set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework makes clear that a local authority may alter the shape of its Green Belt only in exceptional circumstances, using the Local Plan process. The Framework does not define ‘exceptional circumstances’. However, in the Housing White Paper, Fixing our broken housing market, we proposed that a local authority should be able to adjust a Green Belt boundary only when it demonstrates that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting its identified development needs, including:
- effective use of suitable brownfield land;
- the potential offered by under-used land;
- optimising the density of development; and
- exploring whether other authorities can help to meet some of the identified development requirement.
We have been analysing the consultation responses on this proposed clarification, and will announce our conclusions as soon as possible in 2018.
Since records began in 1997, Green Belt has continued to cover around 13 per cent of England, and overall we consider that national policy has successfully restrained urban sprawl. Where necessary, a local authority in consultation with the community can propose a Green Belt boundary change, as part of its Local Plan process, but the revised Plan is subject to rigorous, formal examination by a planning inspector before it is adopted.
The Framework is not law, but the law does require local authorities engaged in Plan-making to have regard to the Framework.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the (a) regulations that apply to and (b) role in national planning of the Green Belt; and if he will make a statement?
Answered by Lord Sharma
Ministers recently reaffirmed the Government’s clear manifesto commitment to maintaining the strong protections for Green Belt, which are set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework makes clear that a local authority may alter the shape of its Green Belt only in exceptional circumstances, using the Local Plan process. The Framework does not define ‘exceptional circumstances’. However, in the Housing White Paper, Fixing our broken housing market, we proposed that a local authority should be able to adjust a Green Belt boundary only when it demonstrates that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting its identified development needs, including:
- effective use of suitable brownfield land;
- the potential offered by under-used land;
- optimising the density of development; and
- exploring whether other authorities can help to meet some of the identified development requirement.
We have been analysing the consultation responses on this proposed clarification, and will announce our conclusions as soon as possible in 2018.
Since records began in 1997, Green Belt has continued to cover around 13 per cent of England, and overall we consider that national policy has successfully restrained urban sprawl. Where necessary, a local authority in consultation with the community can propose a Green Belt boundary change, as part of its Local Plan process, but the revised Plan is subject to rigorous, formal examination by a planning inspector before it is adopted.
The Framework is not law, but the law does require local authorities engaged in Plan-making to have regard to the Framework.
Asked by: Grant Shapps (Conservative - Welwyn Hatfield)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Government has plans to remove Green Belt status from land in order to meet its housing commitments.
Answered by Lord Sharma
Ministers recently reaffirmed the Government’s clear manifesto commitment to maintaining the strong protections for Green Belt, which are set out in the National Planning Policy Framework. The Framework makes clear that a local authority may alter the shape of its Green Belt only in exceptional circumstances, using the Local Plan process. The Framework does not define ‘exceptional circumstances’. However, in the Housing White Paper, Fixing our broken housing market, we proposed that a local authority should be able to adjust a Green Belt boundary only when it demonstrates that it has examined all other reasonable options for meeting its identified development needs, including:
- effective use of suitable brownfield land;
- the potential offered by under-used land;
- optimising the density of development; and
- exploring whether other authorities can help to meet some of the identified development requirement.
We have been analysing the consultation responses on this proposed clarification, and will announce our conclusions as soon as possible in 2018.
Since records began in 1997, Green Belt has continued to cover around 13 per cent of England, and overall we consider that national policy has successfully restrained urban sprawl. Where necessary, a local authority in consultation with the community can propose a Green Belt boundary change, as part of its Local Plan process, but the revised Plan is subject to rigorous, formal examination by a planning inspector before it is adopted.
The Framework is not law, but the law does require local authorities engaged in Plan-making to have regard to the Framework.