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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will extend Community Right to Buy powers to include environmental assets such as peat bogs, heathland, meadows, woods and rivers.

The new community right to buy, which we are introducing through the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, will give communities stronger powers to take ownership of assets that are important to them.

Communities will already be able to nominate a range of environmental assets that further their social or economic wellbeing through the current provisions in this Bill. The list of such assets is extensive, from allotments and playing fields to woodlands and farms. Statutory guidance will be clear that local authorities must accept nominations for environmental assets that meet the criteria.