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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans her Department has to help tackle shortages of professional services in design and planning stages of (a) infrastructure and (b) housing.

Professional services across the built environment are vital to delivering both infrastructure and housing.

A significant amount of beneficial and innovative work is being undertaken by the sector to identify and deliver the professional skills that will be needed in the future, ensuring that it can continue to offer services to further development.

My answer to Question UIN 28327 on 13 February 2025 also sets out the programme in place to enable planning local authorities to access relevant skills.

This will be further underpinned by the fee increases for planning services that is being implemented from April 2025 which will help improve the resourcing of planning application services, so that local planning authorities can access the skills they need.