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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to ensure that local residents have more of a say over planning decisions in their area.

Neighbourhood planning, introduced in the 2011 Localism Act, gives local people a stronger role in shaping the areas in which they live and work. For the first time community groups can produce plans that have real statutory weight in the planning system. They are able to choose where they want new homes, shops and offices to be built, have their say on what those new buildings should look like and what infrastructure should be provided, and grant planning permission for the new buildings they want to see go ahead. To date, over 1,500 local areas have been designated for neighbourhood planning, with 74 successful referendums and 62 plans and orders brought into force.

The Government announced in the Queen’s Speech that the Housing Bill would include measures to simplify and speed up the neighbourhood planning system, to support communities that seek to meet local housing and other development needs through neighbourhood planning. We have also launched a £22.5 million support programme for 2015 – 2018, providing grants and technical assistance to neighbourhood planning groups, and published a suite of resources to make it easier and quicker for communities to progress their plans.