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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to give local authorities the power to impose completion targets as a condition when granting planning consents for housing.

The Government is clear that where sites have planning permission they should move ahead as quickly as possible. Over 1 million homes have been delivered since 2010, but we are taking forward a range of reforms to build even more homes more swiftly, including under the revised National Planning Policy Framework, and proposals to reform developer contributions, that were published on 5 March 2018.

Alongside the current reforms, my right hon friend the Member for West Dorset (Sir Oliver Letwin), is leading a review to understand the main causes of the gap between housing completions and the amount of land allocated or granted permission in areas of high demand, which is due to report in time for the Budget 2018. A letter from Sir Oliver on the progress of his review into build out of planning permissions into homes was published on 13 March 2018.