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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what plans his Department has to fast-track reforms to permitted development rights as part of Project Speed to assist the deployment of mobile networks and 5G, and benefit rural coverage through the Shared Rural Network Initiative.

In August 2019, a joint consultation by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport was launched to consider amending permitted development rights to support increased mobile coverage and 5G deployment.

The consultation closed on 04 November 2019. The Government is considering the replies and will issue a response in due course. Subject to the outcome of this consultation, if the proposals are taken forward, we anticipate undertaking a further consultation on the detail of those proposals.