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

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to provide for local authorities who do not produce a local plan to be placed in special measures.

Plan making has significantly improved under this Government. 81% of local planning authorities have at least published their plan and 63% of local planning authorities now have an adopted local plan in place (compared to 17% in 2010).

The Localism Act has strengthened the role of Local Plans, allowing local councils – in consultation with local residents – to draw up plans and determine where new development should and should not go. Paragraph 14 of the National Planning Policy Framework already provides a very strong incentive for councils to have a Local Plan in place. I am aware that the Labour Party's Lyons Review proposed that sanctions should be imposed against councils without a Local Plan and that the Secretary of State should direct the Planning Inspectorate to produce a Local Plan in place of the Council. However, I believe that proposal is excessively centralising, and would be an unpalatable re-creation of the top-down planning regime that we abolished in the Localism Act.

Drawing up a Local Plan can be challenging – it involves trade-offs and hard choices, and there is no longer Regional Planning Guidance or Regional Spatial Strategy imposed from above to hide behind and blame. But it is our preference for this to be a locally-led process.

The Government has supported local authorities in their Plan making by funding the Planning Advisory Service; the Planning Inspectorate; and senior retired Planning Inspectors to help bring forward sound Local Plans.

This Government introduced neighbourhood planning which offers an unprecedented opportunity for communities to develop plans with statutory force. Over 1,400 communities, representing around 6 million people in England, have now applied for a neighbourhood area to be designated and 59 successful referendums on neighbourhood plans have been held. The Government is committed to supporting communities throughout the process and encouraging more communities to join them. The Government recently announced a new support contract worth £22.5 million, which will begin in April 2015 and last until 2018.