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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will ask the Planning Inspectorate to clarify the exceptional circumstances that justify changes to green belt boundaries in the local plan creation process.

The Government revised the National Planning Policy Framework in 2018, clarifying the exceptional circumstances test for local authorities who are proposing altering the Green Belt boundary through their local plan. Local authorities need to demonstrate that all other reasonable options for meeting identified development needs have been examined, including those criteria given in paragraph 137, and will need to consider all available evidence and local circumstances in making this assessment.