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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking through the planning system to increase the availability of laboratory space.

We have committed to strengthening national planning policy so that it better supports the needs of Research and Development, and will consult on these changes in due course.

We are also working to make investment in this sector more attractive. This includes working with local planning authorities to encourage the use of proactive planning tools, such as Local Development Orders, to make it easier to bring forward development.

To support this, the Autumn Statement announced £5 million of funding to help local planning authorities prepare Local Development Orders for commercial development.