Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will meet the hon. Member for York Outer to discuss reforms to speed up the planning process.

The National Planning Policy Framework stresses the importance of good quality pre-application discussions between local planning authorities and applicants, and the role that these can play in improving outcomes. The Government strongly encourages local planning authorities to utilise best practice guidance for pre-application engagement and planning performance agreements published by the Planning Advisory Service.

The King’s Speech announced that the Government would introduce a Planning and Infrastructure Bill to accelerate housebuilding and infrastructure delivery. This will include measures to modernise planning committees in order to improve decision making. Further details will be announced in due course.

I look forward to working with colleagues during the passage of the Bill and would be happy to receive representations on our proposals from my hon Friend and honourable members.