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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on local infrastructure of proposals in the Planning for the Future white paper to identify land suitable for development as growth areas, where permission in principle would be automatically secured for forms and types of development specified in the local plan.

The White Paper makes it clear that development plans, including the identification of Growth Areas where outline consent would be automatically granted, should continue to be informed by appropriate infrastructure planning. We are also proposing to introduce a new Infrastructure Levy, which will aim to collect more than the current system of developer contributions, and which local authorities will be able to use to fund infrastructure (including onsite provision). We are currently consulting on these proposals, which will inform our assessment of their impact.