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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if the Government will set up a dedicated fund to support community groups that seek to challenge appeals by developers in relation to open and green spaces.

The Government recognises that access to a network of open and green spaces is important for the health and well-being of communities, and the planning system highlights this in a number of ways. Our revised National Planning Policy Framework sets out that sufficient provision for the conservation and enhancement of green infrastructure should be included in strategic planning policies, the importance of green infrastructure in encouraging healthy lifestyles, and makes provision for communities to identify and protect green areas of particular importance to them through the designation of land as Local Green Space through local and neighbourhood plans.

The planning system acts as a control on an individual’s use of land and therefore it is right that they should have an impartial appeal against the refusal of planning permission. An independent Planning Inspector will give careful consideration to the planning merits of the case and take into account the views of the local planning authority and local residents before reaching a decision to allow or dismiss an appeal. Therefore any submissions made by community groups at the planning application stage will also be a matter for consideration at appeal.