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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of including enhanced protection of chalk streams in planning reforms.

The Government is committed to securing better environmental outcomes alongside meeting development needs. We are considering how best to reform environmental assessment processes with that objective in mind, including whether to utilise powers in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act to introduce Environmental Outcomes Reports. Those powers make specific reference to chalk streams in the context of the environmental outcomes to be taken into account.