Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Monday 22nd January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Michael Gove]

We always stand ready to work with local authorities of whatever stripe or colour to ensure the delivery of new homes. As the hon. Member knows, London is the region of the United Kingdom that has performed worst against its housing targets. Principally, that is down to the Mayor, not to individual local authorities, so I look forward to talking to him about what more we can do together.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

T8. There is a powerful community campaign to stop an asphalt plant being built in countryside in my constituency. The application has dragged on for years. Will the Minister look at how applicants and councils can be compelled to provide and process information in a more timely manner, so that such applications do not blight the lives of local people for so long?

[Lee Rowley]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we need decisions at the earliest possible opportunity. Sometimes that is not possible, but it is important that things are done as quickly as possible. That is one reason that we announced a few weeks ago that we were monitoring local authorities’ planning application performance, so that can see where they are, and are not, doing the right thing.