Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment the Government has made of the response rate of members of the public to planning consultations at Local Plan stages rather than site-specific planning applications.

Comprehensive data on the response rate to local authority public consultations on local plans is not available, so no formal assessment has been made. However, our engagement with the sector suggests that consultations can be dominated by the few willing and able to navigate the process, whilst previous studies suggest that only a small proportion of the public tend to engage in local plan consultations.

The Government believes that the best time to consider the strategic use of land is at the local plan stage, and settling these questions at the outset will bring more certainty that development will come forward in areas best identified for growth.

Our proposals in Planning for the Future will lead to better community engagement when local plans are being prepared, allowing members of the public to exert real influence over developments. New citizen engagement tools will make it easier to understand proposals and to express views