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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will introduce new protections under the National Policy Planning Framework to protect historically significant landscapes.

The National Planning Policy Framework already includes safeguards for a range of sites and landscapes that may be of historic significance, including those areas designated as National Parks, the Broads, National Landscapes (formerly known as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty), Heritage Coasts, registered battlefields, grade I and II* registered parks and gardens, World Heritage Sites and scheduled monuments. Our recent consultation on proposed reforms to the Framework retains these important protections.