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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, a) what progress has been made on streamlining the planning process to reduce delays for compliant housing developments and b) whether his Department plans to introduce further measures to increase certainty for applicants.

Significant progress has been made in respect of streamlining the planning process to reduce delays for compliant housing developments.

A revised National Planning Policy Framework was published on the 12 December 2024.

The government is currently consulting on a new NPPF that includes clearer, ‘rules based’ policies for decision-making and plan-making. The consultation can be found on gov.uk here and will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026.

The Planning and Infrastructure Act, which contains a number of provisions designed to improve certainty and decision-making in the planning system, received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025.

On 18 November 2025, my Department published a consultation on reforms to the statutory consultee system. That consultation, which can be found on gov.uk here, closed on 13 January 2026.