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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the planning system gives priority to creating additional school places.

The Government recognises the importance of building new schools. The National Planning Policy Framework therefore makes clear the importance of planning for new school development in order to ensure that a sufficient choice of school places is available. The Government has also introduced additional permitted development rights to allow the change of use from some existing buildings to a state funded school.