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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he is taking steps to tackle potential barriers to planning permission for (a) offshore windfarms and (b) small modular reactor sites.

In February, the Government published an Action Plan setting out important reforms to the consenting process for Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects.

The Government has also published for consultation the updated Energy National Policy Statements, which will set the policy framework for new energy infrastructure against which individual applications will be assessed. A new NPS for Nuclear Power Generation which will cover smaller reactors is also being developed.