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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of (a) dense and (b) high rise residential buildings on the (i) mental and (ii) physical health of their residents.

The National Planning Policy Framework is clear that policies and decisions should ensure that a new development is appropriate for its location. These should take into account the likely effects of pollution on health, living conditions, including the risk of overheating, and the natural environment. Government policy is that by encouraging good design, planning policies and decisions should limit the impact of light.

The National Planning Policy Framework is also clear that planning policies should mitigate, and reduce to a minimum, potential adverse impacts on health and quality of life resulting from noise from new development. They should also identify and protect tranquil areas which have remained relatively undisturbed by noise and have high recreational and amenity value for this reason. Part E of the Building Regulations 2010 requires protection against sound from other parts of a building, adjoining buildings and within a dwelling-house, and prevention of unreasonable reverberation in common internal parts of buildings with residential flats or rooms.

The National Planning Policy Framework also highlights the importance of development creating places that have a high standard of amenity for existing and future users and recommends that planning policies for housing should apply the nationally described space standard where this is justified.