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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what role his Department has in developing the Government’s Project Speed deregulation proposals.

We are committed to spreading opportunity and levelling up through investing in world class infrastructure. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has a key role to play in delivering this ambition: through our stewardship of the planning system; our work on levelling up across the country; and our work on housing.

We are already taking a number of steps, including:

• Committing to a new £10 billion Single Housing Infrastructure Fund, to ensure that infrastructure comes before people move into new homes. At Spring Budget, we also announced a further £1 billion funding from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock almost 70,000 new homes.
• Extending the Affordable Homes Programme, with a new, multi-year settlement of £12 billion.
• Modernising our planning system to ensure that it supports the delivery of homes that local people need and creates more beautiful and greener communities.
• Delivering the £3.6 billion Towns Fund to unleash the potential of towns and high streets throughout the country.

On regulation specifically, we have developed a number of regulatory easements to support businesses to operate through COVID-19. These include:

• laying SIs to enable restaurants, cafes and pubs to offer a takeaway and delivery service;
• removing specific publicity requirements for planning application;
• measures to ease pressures and minimise cashflow issues for councils; and
• announcing that a planned revaluation of business rates will no longer take place in 2021, to help reduce uncertainty for firms affected by the impacts of COVID-19.

We are continuing to work across government to investigate options for broader regulatory reform to support economic growth and renewal, and ensure the investments outlines above deliver the maximum impact.