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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for local authorities to be given the power to refuse planning permission for new building on greenfield sites until all brownfield sites have been developed.

In our revised National Planning Policy Framework we make clear that local authorities should prioritise brownfield land for development, especially for housing to meet local need. This is especially the case where they may be considering the release of Green Belt land, which should only occur once all other options, including the use of brownfield sites, have been fully explored. The brownfield registers of local authorities identify an estimated 26,000 hectares of brownfield with potential for around a million new homes. The question of whether to refuse an application affecting greenfield land must continue to depend, rightly, on the local authority’s planning policies and all other considerations relevant to that particular case, including the protections set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.