Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking with the Department for Transport to ensure that transport planning is integrated in wider city planning to help tackle the climate crisis.

The Government is taking a number of steps to ensure that transport planning is integrated in wider city planning to help tackle the climate crisis. We have set out in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) that transport issues should be considered from the earliest stages of plan-making and development proposals, so that opportunities to promote walking, cycling and public transport use are identified and pursued. In addition, the NPPF is clear that significant development should be focused on locations which are or can be made sustainable, through limiting the need to travel and offering a genuine choice of transport modes.

Last year, the Government published the Transport Decarbonisation Plan, which highlighted the principles of low carbon transport in spatial planning. We are also supporting the delivery of an update to Manual for Streets, the Government’s guidance on street design which ensures that when considering the design of streets, low carbon modes of transport are at the top of the hierarchy.

As we set out in the Net Zero Strategy, through our programme of changes to the planning system we intend to review the NPPF to make sure it contributes to climate change mitigation and adaptation as fully as possible.