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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to ensure that local authorities hold a legally binding bond to ensure new housing developments are completed if the developer declares bankruptcy.

Local planning authorities already have powers to issue a completion notice which requires a developer to complete their development if it is left uncompleted. If they fail to do so, the planning permission for the development will no longer be valid.

In our recent response to the NPPF consultation, which can be found on gov.uk here, we made clear we are also taking steps to implement build out reporting, including bringing in a new requirement for housing developers to submit annual progress reports.

Where developers face financial difficulties before development is completed, we would expect local authorities to work with administrators to help unblock sites and restart housing delivery to complete the development. As part of their responsibilities local authorities should consider how to mitigate risks around infrastructure delivery including looking at the timing of infrastructure completion on site and considering whether it is appropriate to require developers to set aside bonds which can be used to complete infrastructure should the developer be unable to do so.