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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to reassess the threshold for affordable housing on rural exception sites.

Rural exception sites are used for affordable housing provided in perpetuity, on land that would not normally be released for development. While some market housing may be allowed on such sites, this is at the local planning authority’s discretion, and no threshold applies. On sites that are not exception sites, national policy is that affordable housing should be sought only on sites that involve major development, except in designated rural areas where a lower threshold may be set.