Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what recent estimate he has made of the acreage of farm land used for (a) housing development, (b) commercial development, (c) solar panels and (d) battery storage in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
Figures for 2019 onwards are derived using a revised methodology and are expressed as three-year totals. They are not directly comparable with figures for earlier years. Accordingly, the available information for the last three years for which figures are available for (a) and (b) is set out in the table below. Separate figures for (c) and (d) are not available.
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| Amount of land changing use (acres) (a) | |
Period (b) | Change of use: | ||
| Agriculture to residential | Agriculture to Industry and commerce | |
2019 to 2022 (c) | 9,854 | 3,168 | |
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Source: DLUHC Land use change - hectarage statistics, (part of) Live Table P361 at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/land-use-change-hectarage-2019-to-2022 | |||
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Notes: |
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(a) Figures are published in hectares and have been converted into acres for this table. | |||
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether it is the policy of the Planning Inspectorate Service to seek to discourage challenges by planning authorities against planning appeal decisions by the threat of incurring costs; and on how many occasions this occurred in the last ten years.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Guidance on the award of costs in planning appeals is published here.
The Planning Inspectorate uses that guidance to support its decisions on costs awards, which can apply to any main party in the appeal if they behave unreasonably.
Parties in planning appeals and other planning proceedings normally meet their own expenses, but the costs regime exists in legislation to discourage unreasonable behaviour during the appeals process.
The Planning Inspectorate approaches all its decisions and recommendations openly, fairly and impartially, as expected of Tribunals.
In judicial review proceedings and court challenges it is common practice for the winning party to seek to recover their costs from the losing party - whether they are successful in doing so is a matter for the Judge. The Inspectorate does not systematically collect store data on the number of times costs are incurred.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of planning authority judicial review challenges to appeal decisions incur the award of costs against them.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Guidance on the award of costs in planning appeals is published here.
The Planning Inspectorate uses that guidance to support its decisions on costs awards, which can apply to any main party in the appeal if they behave unreasonably.
Parties in planning appeals and other planning proceedings normally meet their own expenses, but the costs regime exists in legislation to discourage unreasonable behaviour during the appeals process.
The Planning Inspectorate approaches all its decisions and recommendations openly, fairly and impartially, as expected of Tribunals.
In judicial review proceedings and court challenges it is common practice for the winning party to seek to recover their costs from the losing party - whether they are successful in doing so is a matter for the Judge. The Inspectorate does not systematically collect store data on the number of times costs are incurred.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of Buckinghamshire Council's bid for a county deal.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
Officials met with all areas that expressed an interest in a County Deal over the summer to discuss their proposals.
We will set out further information on County Deals in the Levelling Up White Paper and officials will be in touch with Buckinghamshire Council – and all other areas that expressed interest – to outline the next steps after it is published.
Asked by: Greg Smith (Conservative - Buckingham)
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 effect of the construction of (a) HS2, (b) East West Rail and (c) other national infrastructure projects on the resources of parish and town councils who cover areas affect by those projects.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Nationally significant infrastructure projects are defined by thresholds in the Planning Act 2008. Decisions on nationally significant infrastructure projects are for the relevant Secretary of State following examination of those proposals by the Planning Inspectorate, in which all relevant issues, which can include effects of construction, are considered. Decisions on transport nationally significant infrastructure projects are for the Secretary of State for Transport.
For nationally significant infrastructure projects, relevant parish councils are statutory consultees and can raise their views, including on implications of construction, before the proposed project is submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for consideration and during its subsequent examination.
Construction of phase 1 and phase 2a of HS2 was authorised through Hybrid Bills where Royal Assent was granted on 23 February 2017 and 11 February 2021 respectively. A Transport and Works Act Order for the Bicester to Bletchley section of East-West Rail was made by the Secretary of State for Transport on 29 January 2020 and came into force on 25 February 2020.