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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the Planning Inspectorate is sufficiently resourced to handle planning appeals swiftly and without any dilution in scrutiny before the new National Planning Policy Framework causes any increase in its caseload; and what consideration they have given to introducing planning appeal fees to help with that resourcing.

The government is committed to handling planning appeals more quickly, including ensuring there is sufficient resourcing in the Planning Inspectorate to support such activity. We currently have no plans to introduce appeal fees but we will continue to keep the issue under review.