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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will (a) clarify the objectives of the changes to the aspect of the National Planning Policy Framework where design and style have a value and (b) make it his policy that (i) appropriateness should be defined by clarifying local and commercial interests, (ii) the views of the community should be taken into account and (iii) through early engagement expectations should be clarified where previously it was explicit that decisions and policies should not impose style nor taste.

Creating high quality buildings and places is an important objective of the National Planning Policy Framework. To help achieve this, it stresses the importance of establishing clear community expectations of what good design looks like in each area, and of early discussions with the community about the design of emerging schemes. It also makes clear that design policies should be grounded in an understanding and evaluation of each area's defining characteristics, including materials, while allowing a suitable degree of variety where justified. Updated guidance to support these policies will be published in due course.