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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress the Government has made in implementing the 2019 National Design Guide.

The National Design Guide became planning practice guidance in 2019, meaning that it became a material consideration in the determination of planning applications. The draft National Model Design Code expands on this guidance further, providing the tools for councils to produce local design codes in consultation with communities. We are currently considering responses to the consultation on the draft National Model Design Code and National Planning Policy Framework which closed on 27 March, and we will be announcing a way forward.