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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the effectiveness of (a) local authority planning and (b) housing departments at providing adequate services.

We currently monitor the effectiveness of local authority planning departments in the speed and quality of decision-making. As part of our proposals to change the planning system through the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, we intend to consult on proposals to introduce a new planning performance framework that monitors the effectiveness of local authority planning across a broader set of metrics.

Additionally, in the Levelling Up White Paper, we announced that we will strengthen transparency for local people and publish rigorous, comparable data on performance of local authorities on the services they deliver. A new body will be set up to drive this, empowering citizens with information about their local area, strengthening local leaders’ knowledge of their services, and increasing central government’s understanding of the sector.