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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had correspondence with St Albans City and District Council on its timetable for completing its local plan.

The Secretary of State wrote to St Albans City and District Council on 19 December 2023 to direct they produce a revised Local Development Scheme and a copy of the letter can be found here.

St Albans City and District Council is one of only 12 local planning authorities who have not published a local plan under the 2004 Act; their last adopted plan was in 1994. This is unacceptable and St Albans City and District Council are ultimately responsible for this.

Should St Albans City and District Council need to prioritise its finite resources it might choose to cease unconscious bias training (something stopped by central government several years ago) or the unnecessary equality, diversity and inclusion work that is underway.