Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will issue guidance to (a) Rossendale Borough Council and (b) other local authorities on the release of land from the Green Belt in a Local Plan under paragraph 137 of the national planning policy framework.
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 the local plan process. 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.