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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Prime Minister's oral contribution of 3 March 2021, Official Report, Column 245, what assessment he made of the effect of the South Oxfordshire Local Plan on the Green Belt prior to his statutory intervention in its adoption.

The South Oxfordshire District Council’s Local Plan is subject to proceedings in the High Court, which precludes a more detailed response than what follows. The Secretary of State’s 3 March 2020 Local Plan intervention decision letter to South Oxfordshire District Council sets out matters he considered in reaching his decision that intervention action was justified. The letter is available online at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/south-oxfordshire-local-plan-holding-direction-letter-to-council . The Local Plan’s consistency with national policy was subsequently tested at examination by an independent planning Inspector. The Council adopted the South Oxfordshire Local Plan 2035 on 10 December 2020.