Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the draft National Planning Policy Framework on the amount of development expected to take place on (a) greenfield land and (b) land outside defined settlement boundaries; whether his Department has modelled the effect of Policy S5 on the volume of speculative planning applications for unallocated sites; and if he will publish that assessment.

By law, planning applications must be determined in accordance with the development plan for the area, unless material considerations indicate otherwise.

The National Planning Policy Framework must be taken into account in preparing the development plan, and is a material consideration in planning decisions.