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

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the proposed reforms to the National Planning Policy Framework, what steps they will take to ensure there is sufficient highways infrastructure to support housing growth given that the proposed reforms would introduce a high bar for refusing development on highways grounds.

We are clear that transport infrastructure is crucial in enabling sustainable development and that necessary transport infrastructure should be delivered through developer contributions.

However, the current approach to transport planning is dated and for that reason, we set out proposals for a ‘vision-led’ approach in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) consultation published on 30^th July.

It remains the case that development should only be prevented or refused on highways grounds if there would be an unacceptable impact on highway safety, or the residual cumulative impacts on the road network would be severe.