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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of of current permitted development rights for (a) mobile infrastructure and (b) 5G in helping the UK become a world-leading 5G economy.

We published the revised National Planning Policy Framework in 2018, setting out national planning policies for supporting high quality communications in England. These include that the planning policies and decisions of local planning authorities should support the expansion of electronic communications networks, such as 5G.

We have also introduced a range of permitted development rights to support the delivery of mobile infrastructure, including legislating for higher masts in 2016, whilst also protecting local amenity.

We hope that these measures will be used by industry, alongside proactive engagement with the planning system, to ensure delivery of 5G. However, we will keep planning regulations under review.