Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many planning appeals relating to grey belt land have been allowed in the past two years.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Planning Inspectorate does not hold the requested information in a readily searchable way, and planning appeals do not have a marker for Grey Belt. As such, it is not possible to identify planning appeal decisions relating to grey belt in the past two years.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what training programmes they are putting into place for local planning officers to ensure they understand the implications of the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My Department funds the Planning Advisory Service (PAS) to provide specialist training, peer learning and guidance for local planning authorities, including on implementing planning reforms and the National Planning Policy Framework. During the 2025–26 financial year, we allocated approximately £2.8 million to PAS, and officials collaborate closely with PAS to turn policy objectives into practical support.
Furthermore, we are taking action to improve planning capacity and capability. At the Autumn Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced a £46 million package of investment into the planning system as a one-year settlement for 2025-2026.
At the Budget on 26 November 2025, the Chancellor announced a further £48 million of investment over three years to support local planning authorities to attract, retain and develop skilled planners over a sustained period.
Of this, £28.8 million has been allocated to MHCLG’s Planning Capacity and Capability Programme, equating to £9.6 million additional per year for the next three years. This allocation will supplement existing budgets.
In total, the Programme now aims to deliver around 1,325 planners by the end of this Parliament, significantly exceeding our original manifesto commitment to deliver 300 new planning officers. Wider cross-government recruitment and investment in planning capacity and capability will increase this figure further to approximately 1,400 planners.
The new funding will support both graduate and mid-career entry routes into planning, including by means of expanding the Pathways to Planning Graduate Scheme and establishing a Planning Careers Hub.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that sanctions are taken against local planning authorities who either refuse applications for non-planning reasons or who do not apply a presumption in favour of sustainable development in the pre-application process.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The planning performance regime monitors local planning authorities on the speed and quality of their decisions. Quality is assessed by the proportion of decisions overturned at appeal, which can include refusals for non-planning reasons or failure to apply the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
If more than 10% of decisions are overturned, the Secretary of State may designate the authority for poor performance. Designation requires the authority to prepare an improvement plan, and applicants may choose to submit relevant applications directly to the Planning Inspectorate for determination.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what evidential basis or analysis they hold to determine whether the prospect of a local planning authority incurring a cost award in a planning appeal is sufficient incentive to ensure local planning authorities appropriately apply the policies in the National Planning Policy Framework in regard to grey belt and the presumption in favour of sustainable development.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My Department has made no such assessment.
The award of costs regime exists to encourage good behaviour by all parties in the planning process. Costs may be awarded where a party has behaved unreasonably and has caused another party to incur unnecessary or wasted expense.
Planning decisions are required to be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Where local planning authorities have exercised their duty to determine planning applications in a reasonable manner, even if they are overturned at appeal, they should not normally be liable for an award of costs.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of applying more stringent penalties to local planning authorities when developments are allowed on appeal, such as automatic costs awards in favour of the applicant or other measures.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My Department has made no such assessment.
The award of costs regime exists to encourage good behaviour by all parties in the planning process. Costs may be awarded where a party has behaved unreasonably and has caused another party to incur unnecessary or wasted expense.
Planning decisions are required to be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Where local planning authorities have exercised their duty to determine planning applications in a reasonable manner, even if they are overturned at appeal, they should not normally be liable for an award of costs.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of planning applicants who do not request cost awards in appeals on account of the local planning authority’s monopoly position.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My Department has made no such assessment.
The award of costs regime exists to encourage good behaviour by all parties in the planning process. Costs may be awarded where a party has behaved unreasonably and has caused another party to incur unnecessary or wasted expense.
Planning decisions are required to be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Where local planning authorities have exercised their duty to determine planning applications in a reasonable manner, even if they are overturned at appeal, they should not normally be liable for an award of costs.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of local planning authorities who do not pay cost awards in relation to planning decisions.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
My Department has made no such assessment.
The award of costs regime exists to encourage good behaviour by all parties in the planning process. Costs may be awarded where a party has behaved unreasonably and has caused another party to incur unnecessary or wasted expense.
Planning decisions are required to be made in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Where local planning authorities have exercised their duty to determine planning applications in a reasonable manner, even if they are overturned at appeal, they should not normally be liable for an award of costs.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of house sales collapsing as a result of delays to probate.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
This department does not hold information on the number of house sales that collapse as a result of delays to probate.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government how they plan to reduce the rates of deaths of despair in the North East, which has over double the rate of London; and what assessment they have made of using rates of deaths of despair to assess progress on levelling up.
Answered by Baroness Swinburne
The Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery (SSMTR) Grant is the mechanism by which local authorities receive Drug Strategy funding to increase substance misuse treatment service capacity and the quality of interventions people receive. The SSMTR Grant is made available to local authorities on the condition of maintaining existing funding through the Public Health Grant.
Details of the SSMTR Grant and the Inpatient Detox (IPD) Grant allocations for the North East are set out below.
| 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2022-23 to 2024-25 |
SSMTR | £7,051,992 | £13,677,970 | £24,787,253 | £45,517,215 |
IPD | £727,295 | £727,295 | £727,295 | £2,181,885 |
DHSC is also providing £1,157,212 in funding to three local authorities in the North East (Middlesborough, Newcastle and Durham) to improve access to drug and alcohol treatment services for people who sleep rough or who are at risk of sleeping rough.
On 11 September 2023, the Government published a Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, with over 130 actions that we believe will make progress towards our ambition to reduce the suicide rate within two and a half years. The Strategy includes an intention to write guidance for local areas to support them to align their own strategies with the national strategy.
On 4 March 2024, we announced that 79 organisations up and down the country, including some in the North East, have been allocated funding from the £10 million Suicide Prevention VCSE Grant Fund. These organisations, from local, community-led through to national, are delivering a broad and diverse range of activity that will prevent suicides and save lives.
The Levelling Up White Paper set out 12 missions, including the health mission, focused on improving Healthy Life Expectancy and narrowing the gap between local areas where it is highest and lowest.
We are supporting people to live healthier lives, helping the NHS and social care to provide the best treatment and care for patients and tackling health disparities through national and system interventions such as the NHS’s Core20PLUS5 programme.
We are monitoring progress on a range of behavioural risk factors and underlying drivers of health, which are likely to impact on the health mission. We continue to use metrics that are publicly available and routinely updated to measure the levelling up missions, chosen to show as comprehensive a picture across the UK as possible. We are committed to developing this data picture and improving understanding of health disparities at a local level.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of a lack of public toilets on people who suffer from a frequent need to urinate.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Shadow Minister (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
Government does not record statistics on the impact of lack of public toilets on disabled people or those with specific health conditions. Local councils are empowered by the Public Health Act 1936 to provide public conveniences. We recently announced up to £30.5 million funding to local authorities in England to boost the number of Changing Places toilets for people who cannot use standard accessible toilets. They will be installed in existing buildings and we have made it compulsory for new public buildings to have them.
The Minister for Equalities, Faith, Local Government and Communities made a statement (HCWS172) on 4 July 2022 setting out the Government’s intention to make changes to the Building Regulations to support better privacy, dignity and security for people using toilets outside the home. As part of that work, the department carried out a call for evidence on toilet provision for men and women, which closed in February 2021. We received more than 17,500 responses to the call for evidence and of those, 88% cited important considerations including medical conditions and toilet provision for disabled persons. These concerns were reflected in our more detailed proposals which were set out in a technical consultation on toilet provision in buildings other than dwellings which closed in October 2023. The responses to the technical consultation are now being considered and we intend to amend Building Regulations accordingly in the coming months.