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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of continuing to commission new neighbourhood planning support services.

Following the Spending Review, my Department announced that it is unable to commission new neighbourhood planning support services for 2025 onwards.

After more than a decade of taxpayer support, our assessment is that neighbourhood planning should now be possible without further government funding. With more than £71 million of support since 2013, there is now a network of planners and groups with the skills and expertise to prepare neighbourhood plans and to help other communities to do so.

The government remains of the view that neighbourhood plans can play an important role in the planning system. Communities can continue to prepare neighbourhood plans where they consider that doing so is in their best interests and they continue to have statutory weight in planning decisions. Once passed at referendum, neighbourhood plans form part of the local development plan, which is the starting point in making planning decisions.

We have been clear that we will ensure that local planning authorities continue to be appropriately funded for their neighbourhood planning function. We will announce further detail details in due course.