Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department is taking to develop brownfield sites.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
This Government strongly encourages the re-use of brownfield land and has introduced a range of measures to support brownfield development and encourage housebuilders to develop brownfield sites.
The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) sets out that planning policies and decisions should give substantial weight to the value of using suitable brownfield land within settlements. We have introduced a number of planning measures including uplifting local housing need in the top 20 most populated cities to make the most of brownfield land and existing infrastructure and successfully requiring every local authority to publish a register of local brownfield land suitable for housing.
The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill sets out planning measures that will support regeneration by enabling more effective use of land, improving land value capture and supporting infrastructure delivery. Reforms, including clarification on the use of compulsory purchase, will make it easier to assemble brownfield land ready for development, whilst locally led Development Corporations will have planning powers to support regeneration and brownfield development. The measures will also create more consistency and certainty in planning decisions, simplifying the system so housebuilders can deliver.
Finally, the Department and Homes England regularly engage with urban areas to support delivery of homes on brownfield. We are putting significant investment into brownfield redevelopment through, for example, the £4.3 billion Housing Infrastructure Fund and £550 million Brownfield Housing Fund to support brownfield development and enable housebuilders to develop brownfield sites, with £1.8 billion in new funding announced at the Spending Review.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many planning applications for the construction of new homes in England he has (a) called in and (b) recovered; and how many of those planning applications were on greenfield sites.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
All decisions taken by Ministers on called-in applications and recovered appeals are published. They can be found on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/planning-applications-called-in-decisions-and-recovered-appeals
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many planning applications for the construction of new homes on greenfield sites in England have been granted in the last five years; and how many of those applications have been upheld at appeal by the Planning Inspectorate.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The data required to answer this question are not held centrally.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to the Planning for the Future White Paper, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Mendip Local Plan II meets the Government's policy of increasing the role of local communities in the planning process.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Due to the ministerial quasi-judicial role in the planning system, it would not be appropriate to comment on the details of specific local plans. We do need to modernise the planning system in England to provide better outcomes for local authorities, communities and builders, including small builders. We will ensure that communities are engaged throughout the planning process supported by digitisation, helping to bring the current system into the 21st century. Communities will retain the ability to have a meaningful say on individual planning applications.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the achievability of housing targets across Somerset in the context of the time taken to process planning applications as a result of nutrient neutrality requirements in the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar catchment area.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The National Planning Policy Framework implemented a standard method for calculating local housing need in order to give a clear understanding of the minimum number of homes an area needs to plan for. The method provides a minimum number of homes, not a maximum, and does not provide a target. Authorities are expected to use it as the starting point in the process of planning for new homes. Once this has been established, local authorities will still need to consider the constraints they face locally, which could include nutrient pollution, to assess how many homes can be delivered in their area. If they cannot meet all their need then they should work collaboratively with neighbouring authorities to see if need would best be met elsewhere. At the end of this process the authority will finalise their housing target and this will be tested by planning inspectors for robustness.
The Government is working to tackle nutrients pollution. Together with DEFRA, we have set up a monthly Government task force involving Natural England and the Environment Agency to ensure a clear action plan is in place, focusing on solutions for both permitting housebuilding to resume while not compromising the condition of Protected Sites. Alongside this, we are continuing to support Local Planning Authorities through the work of the Planning Advisory Service.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of nutrient neutrality requirements on levels of approval of planning applications in Somerset.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
We do not collect information on the number of planning applications that are delayed or not approved due to the nutrient pollution issue, but this data may be held at a local level by Local Planning Authorities. As such as we have not made a direct assessment of the number of planning applications that have not been approved due to the nutrient pollution issue in the Somerset Levels and Moors Ramsar. The Government is working to tackle nutrients pollution. Together with DEFRA, we have set up a monthly Government task force involving Natural England and the Environment Agency to ensure a clear action plan is in place, focusing on solutions for both permitting housebuilding to resume while not compromising the condition of Protected Sites. Alongside this, we are continuing to support Local Planning Authorities through the work of the Planning Advisory Service.
Asked by: David Warburton (Independent - Somerton and Frome)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what discussions he has had with the (a) Secretary of State for Transport, (b) Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and (c) Chancellor of the Exchequer on the potential wider economic benefits to the South West of the Government’s proposed improvements to the A303/A358/A30 corridor.
Answered by Jake Berry
MHCLG ministers and officials meet regularly with other departments to discuss strategic issues to promote local economic growth.