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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with representatives of local authorities on (a) making sufficient provision for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities and (b) increasing the number of sites for those communities in their local authority areas.

During the formal consultation period for the Government’s Planning for the Future White Paper, my department held a series of roundtable discussions with national stakeholders which included local authorities and Gypsy and Traveller support groups. We are progressing wide ranging reform of the planning system, which includes consideration of how to plan for the traveller communities.