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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what flexibility the National Planning Policy Framework gives to local authorities to prioritise the development of brownfield sites over greenfield land in local plans; and whether they propose to amend the National Planning Policy Framework in order to allow local authorities to strengthen such local policies.

The Government wishes to ensure that brownfield land is prioritised and used as much as possible for new development. We will require local authorities to have a register of suitable brownfield sites and ensure 90 per cent of suitable sites have planning permission for housing by 2020. Our planning guidance stresses the importance of bringing brownfield land back into use and encourages councils to use other local plan policies to promote the viability of brownfield across the local area.