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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government,with reference to the National Audit Office report entitled Planning for new homes, published 8 February 2019, what plans he has to improve the performance of the Planning Inspectorate.

The Government believes that all parties should benefit from a more efficient planning appeal process with faster decision-making, and that this will require additional resource. The Planning Inspectorate has recently undertaken a successful recruitment campaign which will see a further 100 Inspectors and Appeals Planning Officers join the organisation over the coming months. On 12 February, we published an independent review by Bridget Rosewell CBE into the planning appeal inquiry process which has made 22 practical recommendations to enhance and speed up the process. We will work closely with the Planning Inspectorate to implement the Review recommendations.