Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure local planning authorities enforce Construction Environmental Management Plans.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Construction environmental management plans are usually required by conditions imposed on the grant of planning permission.
Local planning authorities already have a wide range of powers to deal with breaches of planning condition. It is for authorities themselves to decide when and how they use those powers.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2025 to Question 97317 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether he expects the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners and the re-organisation of local government structures to have any impact on Department spending.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Government is committed to cutting the cost of politics by reducing unnecessary layers of governance and bureaucracy.
Both the abolition of Police and Crime Commissioners, alongside local government reorganisation is intended to deliver savings for the taxpayer over time, with efficiencies reinvested in frontline services.
Exact savings from local government reorganisation will vary depending on the area and the final decisions on which proposals, if any, are implemented.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 November 2024 to Question 90424 on New Towns, in which sections of the New Towns Taskforce: Report to government and the Initial government response - September 2025 are references made to consultations with neighbouring local authorities before new towns are built.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The independent New Towns Taskforce final report and the government’s initial response to it stress the importance of community engagement and working with local partners in delivering the New Towns programme.
The government will publish draft proposals and a final Strategic Environmental Assessment for consultation early next year, before confirming the locations that will be progressed as new towns later in the Spring.
At that point, we will publish a full response to the New Towns Taskforce’s report including details of what relevant consultations will take place in respect of each new town location.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what his Department's policy is on local authorities who do not wish to engage in local government reorganisation.
Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On 5 February 2025, the Government invited two-tier authorities and their neighbouring small unitary councils to develop proposals for unitary local government. All areas have engaged with their invitation although not all councils have submitted proposals. I am grateful for the vast amount of work undertaken by councils to develop proposals, which have now been received from every area invited, and expect local leaders to continue working collaboratively and proactively with each other as we go through the next stages of this process.
It was for councils to decide whether to submit a proposal in response to the invitation by the deadline that was specified. Whether they submitted a proposal or not, they will be a named consultee in the Government’s statutory consultations.
This Government is determined to streamline local government by replacing the current two-tier council system with new single-tier unitary councils. Empowered local government, based on unitary councils and strategic authorities, is the foundation for growth across the country – the government’s number one mission.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to make it easier for local planning authorities to decline repeat applications for development that has already been refused.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Under Sections 70A and 70B of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, local planning authorities already have powers to decline to determine applications if they have previously refused permission for two or more substantially similar applications on the same site, or if a substantially similar application has been rejected by the Secretary of State on appeal or following call-in, within the past two years.