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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to protect the green belt against development.

The Government is committed to continuing to protect and enhance the Green Belt. Under the reforms put forward in the White Paper Planning for the Future, local authorities would still be expected to categorise Green Belts as areas for protection.

The policies in our National Planning Policy Framework on the protection of the Green Belt, and the strong encouragement to prioritise re-use of suitable brownfield land, will remain in place.