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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he has taken to ensure that all combined authorities introduce a locally appropriate, minimum affordable housing threshold on private and public land.

Combined authorities and their mayors have planning responsibilities only where as part of an agreed devolution deal these functions have been conferred on them, as is the case with the mayors of Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and West of England, who are required to publish a Spatial Development Strategy, where they could set out an affordable housing threshold.

Whilst Government policy, as set out in the draft revised National Planning Policy Framework, is that planning policies and decisions should consider what level of affordable housing provision is appropriate having regard to local circumstances, deciding to use an affordable housing threshold to achieve this is a local decision.