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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's policy paper, entitled Brownfield Passport: Making the Most of Urban Land, published in September 2024, whether it is her policy that planning approvals under the new brownfield passport regime would still require a substantive planning application.

The government’s planning reform working paper regarding a brownfield passport invites views on further action the government could take through the planning system to support the development of brownfield land in urban areas. It proposes options for a form of ‘brownfield passport’, which would be more specific about the development that should be regarded as acceptable, with the default answer to suitable proposals being a straightforward “yes”. The proposals relate to the principle, the scale, and the form of development, and to the potential wider use of Local Development Orders to grant area-wide permissions – all in a way that retains appropriate local oversight. A series of questions are posed at the end of the paper, to inform discussions with the sector before determining whether any of these proposals are taken forward. We continue to accept responses to the paper, and will set out further information on how we intend to respond in due course.