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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the procurement of external consultancy resources for Local Plans recorded in his Department's Exceptions to spending controls: consultancy, October to December 2017, published on 25 October 2018, if he will place in the Library a copy of the (a) business case for and (b) output from that project.

The business case for the procurement of consultancy services for intervention in Local Plans is commercially sensitive, therefore I do not intend to place this in the House Library. The overarching objective of the procurement exercise was to put in place the necessary capacity and capability so as to allow the Secretary of State to intervene and bring about the accelerated adoption of Local Plans in areas where there had been a failure to get a Local Plan in place. As a result of the procurement exercise we identified three contractors, those being AECOM, Ove Arup and WSP Lichfield, who will be used to provide the necessary capacity and capability, as and when intervention is required.