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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to amend planning (a) policy and (b) legislation to help facilitate the construction of new water reservoirs.

On 29 May, the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs announced the Fens and Lincolnshire Reservoirs would be given ‘nationally significant’ status and set out the government’s intention to legislate so that similar projects would automatically be ‘Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects’ and considered under the Planning Act 2008.

The National Policy Statement for Water Resources Infrastructure, which includes policy on reservoirs, was designated in September 2023.

The Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs intends to undertake a targeted update to the NPS to streamline water resources infrastructure projects.