Planning Reform

Catherine Atkinson Excerpts

Tuesday 16th December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matthew Pennycook]

As I have said to other hon. Members in the past, housing targets, under the new standard method we have introduced, will increase in every metro area in the country with the exception of London, which was given a fantastical figure by the previous Government, because they applied the urban uplift—an entirely arbitrary 35%—to every London borough, not just the core centre.

[Catherine Atkinson (Derby North) (Lab)]

Under the previous Conservative Government, there was significant building in Mickleover in Derby, yet the GP surgery that was promised alongside that development never materialised. Can the Minister outline how the Government’s new clearer planning policies, particularly on where development should take place, will ensure that future growth is genuinely sustainable and properly linked to the delivery of GP provision and other essential services and infrastructure?

[Matthew Pennycook]

I have referenced before the consolidation and strengthening of the provisions in the framework we published last year in terms of the provision of infrastructure, particularly public service infrastructure. It is local plans, primarily, that should address needs and opportunities around infrastructure, and identify what infrastructure is required and how it can be funded and brought forward, but the reforms we are making through the draft framework will make both plan making and decision making clearer and simpler. I am more than happy to sit down with my hon. Friend to discuss the particular challenges she is facing in her constituency.