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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the figures published by the Office for National Statistics on 20 September 2018 on the determination of a suitable housing figure in Local Plans that are currently at Regulation 18 and Regulation 19 stage and have not been assessed by the (a) Government Inspector and (b) Secretary of State.

In the Government response to consultation, published on 24 July 2018, we stated that following September’s release of figures, we would consider revising the outputs associated with the standard method for calculating local housing need to ensure they are consistent with our aims to get more homes built. We will consult on the specific details of any proposed change as soon as possible.

The standard method only applies to local plans submitted to the Planning Inspectorate after 24 January 2019. Any plans submitted on or before that date can use their own method for calculating their housing requirement. Where household projections form part of that evidence, the impact of changing projections will need to be considered locally. But this does not automatically mean that housing assessments are rendered outdated every time new projections are issued.