Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the need to introduce a legal requirement to consider access to hospital helipads in any planning application in the vicinity of a hospital.

The government is currently consulting on a new National Planning Policy Framework that includes clearer, ‘rules based’ policies for decision-making and plan-making.

The proposed new Framework gives substantial weight to the benefits of providing new or improved public service infrastructure, including healthcare facilities of all types.

The consultation also sets out updated policy to make clear that public services should not have unreasonable restrictions placed on their current or permitted operation as a result of development being approved after they were established. This means that development proposals should be capable of being integrated effectively with existing public service activities and infrastructure in their vicinity.

The consultation will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026 and can be found on gov.uk here.