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 update the NPPF to include guidance on the importance of telecommunications infrastructure in any major planning decisions.

The government is committed to supporting investment in high-quality, reliable digital connectivity so that communities can benefit from faster economic growth and greater social inclusion.

Chapter 10 of the National Planning Policy Framework sets out the government’s current policy on supporting high quality communications infrastructure and the latest national planning policy on how telecommunications and mobile network infrastructure should be considered.

In addition, the Code of Practice for Wireless Network Development in England (April 2022) sets out the considerations that operators should follow when deploying infrastructure, including how infrastructure should be sited.