Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when the brownfield land release fund will be made available to councils.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Brownfield Land Release Fund Round 2, Year 4, will be made available to local authorities before the end of 2025.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77539 on Flags, whether the removal of national flags placed on lampposts was discussed.
Answered by Miatta Fahnbulleh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My department holds many routine meetings with local authorities and the subject of flags has been raised in some of these as a point of discussion.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he is taking to help ensure protections are in place for the provision of (a) sports, (b) physical activity and (b) green spaces in the consideration of planning applications.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that access to high-quality open spaces and opportunities for sport and physical activity is important for the health and well-being of communities.
The Framework includes strong protections for existing open space, sports and recreational buildings and land, including playing fields, setting out that they should not be built on unless they are no longer needed, equivalent or better provision is made, or the development is for alternative sports or recreational provision which offers benefits that clearly outweigh the loss of the current or former use.
Asked by: Andrew Snowden (Conservative - Fylde)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the press release entitled Chancellor cuts pointless admin in nearly £6 billion business blitz, published on 21 October 2025, whether his Department has tested the (a) reliability, (b) accuracy and (c) risk of bias of AI systems for planning application reviews; and whether he plans to consult with local authorities on the adoption of these technologies.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
My Department is actively exploring options to develop AI-enabled products to speed up public service provision, including in respect of planning services.
We are developing, and will deploy, these products responsibly, in line with guidance set out in the AI Playbook for the UK Government and clauses in the Royal Town Planning Institute’s Code of Conduct.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many national significant infrastructure planning decisions have been made (a) within and (b) outside the statutory time frame in this Parliament; how many applications have been made but not yet had a decision; and what estimate his Department has made of the number that would be needed to be approved each year to meet the Government's target.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government made 21 decisions on Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects (NSIPs) in the first year of this Parliament. This compares with the first year of the last Parliament in which only 15 decisions were made and represents the highest number of annual decisions made since the NSIP programme was introduced in 2011.
27 NSIP decisions have been made so far since the start of this Parliament. Of these, 13 were within the statutory timeframes and 14 were not. A number of those 14 decisions made outside of statutory timeframes exceeded the limit during the previous Parliament. This government swiftly made decisions on those projects in July 2024.
To date in this Parliament, 33 projects have submitted an application but have not yet had a decision. Through the Planning and Infrastructure Bill, we are seeking to reduce the average time it takes reach a decision on an NSIP project from its peak of 4.2 years under the previous government.
To achieve our Plan for Change milestone of fast-tracking 150 planning decisions, we will need an average of 32 decisions per year from July 2025. While we have not achieved this in our first year, we expect the rate of decisions to continue to accelerate alongside the already seen increase in projects entering the pipeline.
Asked by: Gideon Amos (Liberal Democrat - Taunton and Wellington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to ensure that (a) high-quality (i) landscape design and (ii) green infrastructure proposed in planning applications are protected during construction and (b) long-term funding models for (A) management and (B) maintenance are provided through the planning process.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The National Planning Policy Framework emphasises the importance of a network of high-quality open spaces for the health and wellbeing of communities and the environment.
The National Design Guide, which supports the Framework, makes clear that well-designed places consider management and maintenance regimes from the early stages of the design process and document them in a management plan.
A Local Planning Authority (LPA) can attach conditions to the grant of planning permission. These could be used to secure the implementation and protection of landscape design and green infrastructure within a development.
LPAs can also use planning obligations to restrict or prescribe the use of land, require specific activities to be carried out in relation to a development, and require payment to a local authority. Planning obligations could include requiring a developer to make payments towards the management and maintenance of green infrastructure.
Asked by: Roz Savage (Liberal Democrat - South Cotswolds)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many planning applications will be exempt from the requirement to replace lost nature under previous biodiversity net gain requirements.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
On 28 May 2025, the government published a consultation on improving the implementation of biodiversity net gain for minor, medium and brownfield development which can be found on gov.uk here. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is considering the responses received.