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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what plans he has to ensure that residents can veto proposals to extract minerals in their localities.

Without minerals, the country cannot provide the raw materials for construction, to help build and maintain homes, roads and railway lines. Traditional materials are also needed to maintain historic buildings. Hence, some extraction will always need to take place.

However, as with housing, this Government has abolished top-down regional targets in the Regional Strategies, and given councils more power and discretion through Local Plans to determine where development should and should not go.