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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will take steps to facilitate Compulsory Purchase Orders on brownfield sites to counter land banking by developers where land has remained undeveloped after two years.

Local authorities have compulsory purchase powers to acquire development land.

The Community Infrastructure Levy is an enabling, not a punitive, device. It is a charge on development to help fund the infrastructure needed to support development, payable from the date of commencement of works on site.

Where sites have planning permission, work should move ahead as quickly as possible. However, there can be genuine reasons why developments are built out more slowly than expected. Local authorities can issue completion notices to deal with tardy developers or unreasonable delay.