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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to paragraph 145 of the National Planning Policy Framework, published in December 2023, whether it his policy that the threshold for an exceptional circumstance would be met by a local authority area seeking to alter green belt boundaries for the purposes of making a local plan in circumstances where housing need as calculated by the standard method cannot be met having exhausted all development opportunities (a) not in the green belt and (b) in existing brownfield sites within the existing green belt boundaries.

I refer the Hon Member to the written statement made by my Rt Hon Friend The Secretary of State (HCWS161) and the revisions made to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) on 19th December 2023.