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

To ask His Majesty's Government (1) what assessment they have made of (a) the use of retrospective planning applications following deliberate breaches of planning rules, and (b) the level of resources available to local authorities to resist such breaches, and (2) what plans they have to prohibit inappropriate developments using retrospective planning applications and to prevent resubmissions of failed applications with only marginal changes to the proposal.

The Government does not collect data on retrospective planning applications. We have introduced measures in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill to tighten up the retrospective planning application process, which is being considered by both Houses of Parliament. We have recently consulted on doubling the fees for retrospective planning applications and sought views on potential ways to improve developer accountability and, in particular, take account of past irresponsible behaviour in decision making. We also intend to consult on updating national planning policy to give increased weight against intentional unauthorised development so it can be dealt with more robustly in decisions.