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

To ask His Majesty's Government whether it is their policy that shops, medical centres and other amenities should be provided at the same time as the construction of homes in greenfield developments.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is clear that significant weight should be placed on the importance of new, expanded or upgraded public service infrastructure when considering proposals for development.

The government is consulting on a new NPPF that includes clearer, more ‘rules based’ policies for decision-making and plan-making, designed to make planning policy easier to use and underpin the delivery of faster and simpler local plans. The consultation includes policies supporting the delivery of new and improved community facilities and public service infrastructure serving new development, setting out that planning conditions and obligations should be used to secure the timely delivery of community facilities and public service infrastructure required to serve new development, so that these facilities are available for use when the development (or an agreed proportion of the development) is first occupied or comes into use.

We are inviting views on these proposals through the consultation, which is available here (attached) and will remain open for responses until 10 March 2026.