Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 20 November (HL Deb col 930), whether they plan to make changes to planning practice guidance and the National Planning Policy Framework to ensure that water and sewerage companies and undertakings fully engage with local plans and spatial development strategies as statutory consultees at the strategic level, rather than at the individual site level.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Government will shortly be introducing a new plan-making system to support faster preparation of plans and more frequent updates. This new system will provide a more strategic approach for water and sewerage company engagement in plan-making. Government intends to prescribe water and sewerage companies in ‘Requirement to Assist’ regulations so they will be obliged to assist with plan-making, where a plan-making authority reasonably requests it. Government also intends to list water and sewerage companies as consultation bodies for the new plan-making system, so they will be made aware of key plan-making consultations where the plan-making authority considers that they have an interest. The Requirement to Assist will also apply to the preparation of spatial development strategies. The National Planning Policy Framework and relevant planning and guidance will reflect these law changes where appropriate.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Housing and Planning on 21 November (HC88648), whether they have a general policy on cancelling 'article 4' directions submitted by local authorities to remove permitted development rights for (1) asylum hotels, and (2) houses in multiple occupation that are occupied by asylum seekers, by exercising the Secretary of State's powers under Schedule 3 to the Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) Order 2015.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We have no such policies.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to prevent cost-shunting from abolished district or county councils to town and parish councils as a consequence of unitary restructuring.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We know from previous reorganisations that unitarisation can unlock significant savings and efficiencies when strong, sustainable councils are set up. Most savings come from the back office, and this money can be reinvested into the frontline to improve public services for communities.
Town and parish councils are not in scope for local government reorganisation and will continue to operate as they do now. Central Government also has no role in funding town and parish councils.
Local authorities may wish to collaborate with their town and parish councils to determine how they can most effectively contribute to the delivery of services in future arrangements. In doing so, they may wish to consider the support town and parish councils will require to do so effectively.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the letter from Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 5 November, whether the special provisions within the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 on the private disclosure of information are being used in the Chinese Embassy planning case; and what steps they are taking to facilitate sharing of (1) sensitive information about the building plans by the applicant, and (2) sensitive information about the applicant and its potential use of the building for espionage or repression, including information held by the intelligence services which those services do not wish to share with the government of China or otherwise place in the public domain.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
All inquiry documents for this case are publicly available on Tower Hamlets (attached) website here.
Post-inquiry representations are routinely listed at the end of the final decision letter, and are also available on request once the decision letter has issued. The Secretary of State is able to issue a direction under section 321 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, which allows specific evidence to be withheld from public inspection at a public inquiry. No section 321 direction has been made in this case.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 10 November (HC87207), whether unitarisation and local government restructuring meet the criteria for a "strong justification" to (1) postpone, or (2) cancel, scheduled (a) county, (b) district, and (c) unitary, elections in May 2026.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
As set out by the Minister of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 10 November, single year election postponements in 2025 were intended to help deliver both devolution and reorganisation to the most ambitious timeline possible in the area, and in Surrey, in the context of specific financial challenges. Postponements have previously occurred in areas undergoing local government reorganisation only where councils requested or agreed to the postponement.
Where an election is postponed, the criteria for that postponement is set out in the Explanatory Memorandum to the required secondary legislation for the consideration of Parliament.
Our starting point is for all 2026 elections to go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise. There are no plans to cancel any May 2026 elections except in Surrey where elections to the new councils of East Surrey and West Surrey will replace scheduled council elections, subject to Parliament.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what planning-related data they obtain from Glenigan.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Glenigan provide data on residential development sites and planning applications. Data fields include site dimensions, date application submitted, date application decided, decision outcome, number of proposed units, application type, site location, and planning authority, among other details.
We also receive a calculated metric on the number of homes granted planning permission at detailed and reserved matters stage each quarter. This is published in the department’s quarterly planning applications statistics release.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the guidance Holocaust Memorial: handling arrangements for planning casework, published on 5 November, and Entertainment Resort Complex, Bedford: Handling Arrangements, published on 17 October, whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the handling arrangements for the planning casework of the Chinese Embassy application at the Royal Mint.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
In dealing with any planning casework, Ministers and officials will always act in accordance with published propriety guidance on planning casework decisions, which is available on gov.uk (attached) here.
Handling arrangements are published where they are required in specific cases to ensure that Ministers or officials with any role in promoting planning proposals are explicitly excluded from the planning decision-making process. That does not apply in the case of the application for the Royal Mint Court.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, whether, once an outline application for a site not in a local plan is granted permission by a local planning authority, the provisions of paragraph 59 of the National Planning Policy Framework separately apply to any subsequent planning applications for the site, including any conditions made at outline consent.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Paragraph 59 of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is intended to apply to applications for planning permission, including applications for outline permission and reserved matters applications. The NPPF is a material consideration in planning decisions. Viability considerations may be relevant at the stage of approving reserved matters or conditions.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the starting date by which the net additional dwellings will be measured for the purposes of their target of delivering 1.5 million homes this Parliament, and whether it will include net additional homes delivered before 4 July 2024, but reported later.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Progress toward the government’s Plan for Change milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in England in this Parliament will be measured through the number of net additional dwellings.
Whilst net additional dwellings are collected on a financial year basis only, we estimate net additional dwellings from the start of the parliament on Tuesday 9 July 2024.
The latest data on net additional dwellings can be found on gov.uk here.
Asked by: Lord Jamieson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Statement by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage on 13 October (HLWS946), whether additional homes already committed to in a local plan will count towards the ministerial commitment to get spades in the ground on at least three new towns in this Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Taylor of Stevenage - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On 28 September, the government published the New Towns Taskforce report as well as its initial response.
As set out in their report, the Taskforce have prioritised sites where housing can be delivered quickly to reflect the urgent need for housing and with high quality placemaking standards. New towns are necessarily long-term projects which should continue to grow over decades to come, but government is determined to begin work as soon as possible, with spades in the ground on at least three new towns in this Parliament.
The government takes on board the Taskforce’s recommendations to consider the interaction between new towns and housing targets ahead of its fuller response. We want to ensure that the right incentives are in place to support proactive local authorities to work with us to bring new towns forward.