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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he make it his policy to publish a list of any (a) discussions and (b) correspondence his Department has with the Mayor of London on the potential impact of clauses 82 to 91 and schedule 7 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill.

The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill will not affect how the Mayor consults on the London Plan, gains approval for it or either the Mayor's or the Secretary of State's role in relation to it. London Plan policies would, in future, need to avoid conflict with National Development Management Policies - which the Bill empowers the Secretary of State to prepare - and be of strategic importance to more than one borough. The requirement to assist with plan making will apply to prescribed bodies in relation to the London Plan and the Mayor would gain the power to prepare supplementary plans on design matters.

These, and more minor changes, are explained in the Explanatory Notes to the Bill. There have not been discussions or correspondence with the Mayor, nor consultation, on the clauses referred to prior to the Bill's publication, but my officials have had informal discussions with GLA officers following publication of the Bill.